ABSTRACT The consumption of alcohol in the past is a much-studied subject, largely because alcoholic beverages play an important role in numerous sociopolitical institutions. While alcoholic beverages have been widely acknowledged to be an important component of society, the ability to recognize alcohol intake in ancient contexts has proven difficult. As a result, many authors investigating ancient alcohol have used indirect indicators to reconstruct consumption patterns. In an attempt to produce a direct method, the authors conducted a series of stable isotope analyses in order to establish whether this approach can be used to indicate the existence of maize based alcohol. This paper describes the results of this pilot study, and reveals a potential oxygen isotope signature for maize beer. Our data indicate that the light oxygen isotope is preferentially represented in the CO2 formed during fermentation. Thus, the resulting beverage is more δ18O enriched than the local water source. These results replicate and support similar findings from other maize beer researchers.

中文翻译：

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玉米啤酒消费的潜在氧同位素特征：一项实验性试验研究

摘要 过去，酒精消费是一个被广泛研究的主题，主要是因为酒精饮料在众多社会政治机构中发挥着重要作用。虽然酒精饮料已被广泛认为是社会的重要组成部分，但在古代背景下识别酒精摄入量的能力已被证明是困难的。因此，许多研究古代酒精的作者使用间接指标来重建消费模式。为了建立直接方法，作者进行了一系列稳定同位素分析，以确定这种方法是否可用于指示玉米醇的存在。本文描述了这项试点研究的结果，并揭示了玉米啤酒的潜在氧同位素特征。我们的数据表明，轻氧同位素优先出现在发酵过程中形成的 CO2 中。因此，由此产生的饮料比当地水源富含更多的 δ18O。这些结果复制并支持了其他玉米啤酒研究人员的类似发现。