2,600-year-old Phoenician wine 'factory' unearthed in Lebanon

National Geographic ^ | September 14, 2020 | Tom Metcalfe

[SunkenCiv]

Excavations at Tell el-Burak, about five miles south of the Lebanese coastal city of Sidon, have revealed the well-preserved remains of a wine press used from at least the seventh century B.C. It is the earliest wine press ever found in the Phoenician homelands, which roughly corresponded to modern Lebanon. The discovery is featured in a study published Monday in the journal Antiquity.

Large numbers of seeds show grapes were brought there from nearby vineyards and crushed by treading feet in a large basin of durable plaster that could hold about 1,200 gallons of raw juice...

The wine press was excavated along with four mudbrick houses at Tell el-Burak, part of a Phoenician settlement inhabited between the eighth and sixth centuries B.C. that was probably devoted to making wine for trading overseas, the researchers write...

The Phoenicians didn't invent wine -- evidence of it from about 8,000 years ago has been found in the country of Georgia -- but they spread winemaking throughout the ancient Mediterranean, along with olive oil and innovations such as the alphabet and glass...

The ancient seafarers introduced vineyards and wineries to their colony cities in North Africa, Sicily, France, and Spain. And they made it popular through trade with ancient Greece and Italy, where wine from wild grapes was known at the time but not so highly developed, says University of Toronto archaeologist Stephen Batiuk, who was not involved in the research.

[Red Badger]

Who invented liquor?

We must make them a saint........................