The Oldest Antiquity Tea in the World

Tea (Camellia sinensis L.) as one of the most popular nonalcoholic beverages, and consumed by over two-thirds of the world’s population for its refreshing taste, aroma, medicinal, and mildly stimulating qualities. As we all know that the tea originated from southwest of China recorded by Huo Tuo in his medicine text. The exact antiquity of tea is shrouded in Chinese myth.The first unambiguous textual reference to the consumption of tea as a beverage can be dated to 59 BC during the Western Han Dynasty.

However, its widespread popularity amongst both northern Chinese and people to the west such as Uighurs is generally attributed to the Tang Dynasty (7th–8th century CE). Previously the oldest physical evidence of tea was from China’s Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127 CE). It has long been hypothesized that tea, silks and porcelain were key commodities exported from the ancient Chinese capital, Chang’an to the central of Asia and beyond by caravans following several transport routes constituting the network commonly referred to as the Silk & Road which is use by the second century BC.

However, there are no records of tea having been carried along the Silk & Road into Tibet, central Asia or southern Asia until the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). The Tibetan Plateau was then closely linked eastwards to central China through trade of tea and horses for Tibetan furs and medicinal plants.

 

Although trade of millets already connected the Tibetan Plateau to lowland China more than 4000 calibrated years before present (yr BP), and barley cultivation and pastoralism expanded after 3600 yr BP, the emergence of historical patterns of commodity trade and habits of tea drinking along the Silk & Road and in the Tibetan Plateau has remained poorly understood, due mainly to the poor preservation of plant leaves, and the challenge of identifying decayed tea remains in archeological samples.

Here, we present evidence from calcium phytoliths (calcium oxalate plant crystals), chemical biomarkers and radiocarbon dating from dried plant bundles from two funerary sites: the Han Yangling Mausoleum in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province; and the Gurgyam Cemetery in Ngari district, western Tibet. Large modern reference collections are used to compare and contrast microfossil morphology and biomolecular components of these ancient remains to modern standards of tea and related plant species. It can reveals that tea was drunk by Han Dynasty emperors as early as 2100 yr BP and had been introduced into the Tibetan Plateau by 1800 yr BP. This indicates that one branch of the Silk & Road passed through western Tibet at that time.