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Scientists Uncover 3,700-Year-Old Wine Cellar

Posted by samzenpus on from the break-out-the-good-stuff dept.

Taco Cowboy writes in with a link about the remnants of some well-aged wine recently uncovered in Israel. "Scientists have uncovered a 3,700-year-old wine cellar in the ruins of a Canaanite palace in Israel, chemical analysis from the samples from the ceramic jars suggest they held a luxurious beverage that was evidently reserved for banquets. The good stuff contains 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. 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. The unmarked jars are all similar as if made by the same potter. Chemical analysis indicates that the jars held red wine and possibly white wine. There was no liquid left; analyses were done on residues removed from the jars. 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."

7 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. those ingredients by FudRucker · · Score: 4, Interesting

    cedar, cinnamon bark, honey, etc...

    sounded like the ancient relatives of whoever invented Jaegarmeister http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A4germeister

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
  2. Greece is "across the Mediterranean"!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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."

    Wine (drinking and making) was common in Greece before any Canaanite had heard that such drink even existed - and it was common for Greeks to trade their wine across the Mediterranean.

    1. Re:Greece is "across the Mediterranean"!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

      I am the one that made the parent comment about Greeks probably spreading the wine development across the Mediterranean and not Canaanites... and i am Greek!
      To be honest i tryed to make it sound as little as possible anti-semitic and mostly without bragging about my Greek ancestors, but here one fact:
      Canaanites -Philistines (as the were called by the Jews)- were actually Greeks... and a very big enemy of Jews!

    2. Re:Greece is "across the Mediterranean"!? by Dahamma · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Grapes were first domesticated and wine first produced in the Near East (modern day Syria, Israel, Turkey, Iran etc) and the Caucasus. Just as the article said, it later spread to Egypt and across the Mediterranean into Greece.

      Though 3700 years ago (aka 1700 BCE) isn't very far back in terms of these ancient civilizations (just in terms of Greek Civilization, maybe). The Near East had been making wine for thousands of years before that.

    3. Re:Greece is "across the Mediterranean"!? by HornWumpus · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Greeks claim wine like Russians claim vodka. Best not to argue with them in real life.

      Ignoring my own advice: Monkeys get drunk on naturally occurring fermented fruit. Wine was almost certainly discovered prior to modern humans reaching Greece.

      The Greeks did discover distillation, though they didn't drink the results. Give them vodka as a consolation prize.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  3. Sophisticated? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Do you add 'honey, mint, cedar, tree resins and cinnamon bark' to your wine because your technique is "sophisticated" or because you are trying to restore some semblance of drinkability to the result of a really dreadful fermentation process?

  4. Actually... No. by gwolf · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Canaanites are known to come from Sumerian-Accadian roots (just as Hebrews, later turned Jews). You can look, as an example, as their cosmology. Summerian goddess Inanna (and the whole pantheon around her, being she not the only but a very important goddess — And yes, I know the word pantheon _is_ Greek) is replicated in Canaan. Some Canaanite tribes were known to also worship trees as gods (and that's why the names for many trees in Hebrew include the particle "El" — Ilan, alon, ela, etc.), and that's why the old testament specifically forbids making altars to (the only, Israelite) God "under big trees and in high places".

    As for Philistines, there might be some link to Greeks: After all, the main Philistine god was "the lord of the flies" (Baal Zvuv — One of the names of the devil, "Belcebu" stems from it). From the composed name, "Baal" means basically "the lord, and Zvuv has an ethimological closeness to "Zeus". The theology is, however, quite different.