top of page

Unlocking

THE ANCIENT RECIPES

Landscape in the vicinity of the Simagou site (ca. 8000BP) in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Re

Our
Mission

We are not only what we eat, but also where, when, how, and with whom we eat.

Our Group

We are a team of archaeologists from Stanford University discovering ancient food cultures around the world.

233141055_195689639241331_174005044049519049_n.png

Stanford Archaeology Center

SAC

ealclogo1_0.webp

Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures

EALC

Xipo2.jpg

Meet the Director, Our Current Members, and Alumni

OUR TEAM

Screen Shot 2020-08-19 at 2.34.06 PM.png

The Archaeological Science Lab at Stanford

OUR LAB

Screen Shot 2020-08-19 at 2.34.58 PM.png

Our Research Employs A Variety of Experimental Works.

EXPERIMENTAL WORKS

DSC09044_edited.jpg

Collaborating with SUAC and Campus Archaeology

COLLABORATIONS

Discovering Ancient Food
at Stanford University...

DSC05927_edited.jpg

Our
Themes

Our lab explores many aspects of foodways in ancient societies worldwide, with a focus on China.

Transitioning from foraging to agriculture under microscopes

China is one of the few centers in the world where plant domestication evolved independently, but its developmental trajectory is not sufficiently understood.

The Quest for Alcohol
in Ancient World

Fermented and alcoholic beverages played a pivotal role in feastings and social events in past agricultural and urban societies across the globe, but the origins of the sophisticated relevant technologies remain elusive.

Subsistence strategies and development of social complexity

Subsistence strategies are the essence of a political-economic system, and may predict other forms of behavior, such as population size, division of labor, and social structure.

 New Publications

PNAS

Archaeological evidence for initial migration of Neolithic Proto Sino-Tibetan speakers from Yellow River valley to Tibetan Plateau

Liu et al. 2022

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

Brewing and Serving Alcoholic Beverages to Erlitou Elites of Prehistoric China: Residue Analysis of Ceramic Vessels

Screenshot 2023-03-27 at 16.43.41.png

He et al. 2022

New Book

Yangshao Book 1.jpg
Yangshao Book 1.jpg

SAC Lunch Lecture, Oct. 2022

The farming/language dispersal hypothesis proposes that significant language families in the world dispersed along with the expansions of agriculture. Sino-Tibetan is one of the largest language families in the world.

By Li Liu

SAA Conference, Apr. 2023

SL director Li Liu, member Yahui He, and Jingbo Li presented their research in the symposium: Drinking Beer In A Blissful Mood: A Global Archaeology of Beer.

WechatIMG1316.jpeg

By Li Liu, Yahui He, Jingbo Li

ASL Spotlight

Yahui He JLS.HEIC

Outreach, Oct. 2022

Ph.D. Candidate Yahui He and Yuyang Wang talk to 6th grade students at JLS Middle School about Neolithic China, archaeobotany, and petrographic analysis.

Yahui He JLS.HEIC
IMG_3652.HEIC

Lab Tour, Nov. 2022

Post-doc scholar Matthew Chastain and Ph.D. candidate Yuyang Wang led lab tour for petrographic analysis and pXRF analysis for undergraduate students .

IMG_3652.HEIC

Archaeological Science Lab

OUR  PROJECTS  IN 

THE  NEWS

Screen Shot 2020-10-30 at 4.25.04 PM.png

STANFORD

NEWS

"An ancient thirst for beer may have inspired agriculture, Stanford archaeologists say"

Screen Shot 2020-10-30 at 4.26.52 PM.png

ELSEVIER

"A prehistoric thirst for craft beer"

Screen Shot 2020-10-30 at 4.39.55 PM.png

SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE

"Traces of 13,000-Year-Old Beer Found in Israel"

Screen Shot 2020-10-30 at 4.41.51 PM.png

ATLAS OBSCURA

"Found: Evidence of the Oldest Beer Ever Brewed"

Collaborative Institutions

Screen Shot 2020-09-23 at 5.52.01 PM.png
Screen Shot 2020-09-23 at 5.52.31 PM.png
zhejiang logo.png
Screen Shot 2020-09-23 at 5.53.33 PM.png
d058ccbf6c81800ab45a40fcb33533fa838b4781

Inner Mongolia Institute of Cultural Relics and
Archaeology

Ulanqab Museum

Screen Shot 2020-10-14 at 8.23.45 PM.png
Screen Shot 2020-10-14 at 8.29.23 PM.png
mobile-logo@2x.png
220px-University_of_Haifa_logo.svg.png
timg-1-1.webp
download.jpg
bottom of page