Ancient
wine cellar reveals a sophisticated drink
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[November 23, 2013]
NEW YORK (AP) —
Scientists have uncovered a 3,700-year-old wine cellar in the ruins of a
Canaanite palace in Israel, and chemical analysis shows this is where
they kept the good stuff.
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Samples from the ceramic jars suggest they held a luxurious
beverage that was evidently reserved for banquets, researchers
said. "It's not wine that somebody is just going to come home
from a hard day and kick back and drink," said Andrew Koh of
Brandeis University. He found signs of a blend of ingredients
that may have included honey, mint, cedar, tree resins and
cinnamon bark.
The discovery confirms how sophisticated wines were at that
time, something suggested only by ancient texts, said Eric Cline
of George Washington University. He, Koh and Assaf Yasur-Landau
of the University of Haifa in Israel spoke to reporters Thursday
before their work was presented Friday at a meeting of the
American Schools of Oriental Research.
The wine cellar was found this summer in palace ruins near
the modern town of Nahariya in northern Israel. Researchers
found 40 ceramic jars, each big enough to hold about 13 gallons,
in a single room. There may be more wine stored elsewhere, but
the amount found so far wouldn't be enough to supply the local
population, which is why the researchers believe it was reserved
for palace use, Cline said.
The unmarked jars are all similar, as if made by the same
potter, Yasur-Landau said. Chemical analysis indicates that the
jars held red wine and possibly white wine, Koh said. No liquid
was left, and he analyzed residues he had removed from the jars.
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Patrick McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania, an expert in
ancient winemaking, said the discovery "sheds important new light"
on the development of winemaking in ancient Canaan, from which it
later spread to Egypt and across the Mediterranean. He said the
chemical analysis would have to be published before the ingredients
of the wine could be assessed.
Curtis Runnels, an archaeologist at Boston University, called the
finding significant, not only in showing the sophistication of the
wine but also in suggesting that it was meant specifically for
palace use. He noted that the chemical analysis showed each jar held
wine from the same recipe, showing the "consistency and control
you'd expect in a palace."
[Associated
Press; MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer]
Malcolm Ritter can be
followed at
http://twitter.com/malcolmritter.
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