1,900-year-old winery — that made drinks for ancient Romans — found in France

Inrap via Miami Herald via Yahoo ^ | November 30, 2023 | Aspen Pflughoeft

[SunkenCiv]

On the bank of a picturesque river in southern France sat a collection of ancient ruins. A buried cellar and empty pools are all that remain of a Roman-era winery.

Archaeologists found the ruined winery in Laveyron during excavations for a factory's parking lot, the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) said in a Nov. 30 news release.

The large-scale winemaking operation was built in the first century A.D. and probably produced drinks for ancient Romans...

On either side of the platform, archaeologists found basins where the grape juice was collected...

The basins were in turn linked to two larger rooms that archaeologists identified as cellars, the researchers said...

Excavations also uncovered a three-room building that was likely used for the wine production, archaeologists said. The imprints of several large jars, typically used for storing wine or olive oil, were also uncovered. A photo shows these darker-brown, medium-sized imprints...

The excavation also found traces of several older buildings, dating to the first century B.C., the institute said. The function of these remains unknown, but a nearby trash heap from the same period revealed fragments of pottery, including the large jars used for wine and olive oil.

[SunkenCiv]

The raised platform where the wine presses were located. A basin is visible in the foreground.

Inrap (probably)

[SunkenCiv]

[Red Badger]

How do these things get buried?......................

[ProtectOurFreedom]

So are they going to raze it and put up the parking lot? (it was fund during a parking lot excavation)

[fretzer]

Just think, in 2000 years,archaeologists (assuming there are any) will unearth Napa.

[central_va]

They paved paradise.

[Beowulf9]

This is really cool. Love it. Would love to go back in time and get a glass, would it be Venetian or is this stuff for the regulars sold in clay cups?

[Scrambler Bob]

The really old stuff was labled with vintages ‘xxxx B.C.’

[dfwgator]

Alright, but apart from the wine, what have the Romans ever done for us?

[Pontiac]

Just imagine a future archeologist excavating one of our modern landfills.

I live near a Mount Trashmore that covers about 300 acres and it about 200 feet high.

It has off gas flare that can be seen for miles at night.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"How do these things get buried?"

It's always an interesting question, isn't it? I'm always surprised at the layers and layers they find in cities.

Building materials were scarce and expensive, so old buildings were often taken down and reused in new buildings. Did farmers bring in soil to cover the foundations to make farm land? Moving soil was heavy, back breaking work. You'd think it would have been easier to just clear new land for farming.

Or did natural processes move the soil?

Turns out many others have asked that question. I'll have to read some of these pages...

DuckDuckGo --> how did old archaeological sites get buried

[SunkenCiv]

Don’t it always seem to go...

[fidelis]

The Roman empire conquered modern-day France, then known as Gaul, in 53 B.C., according to Britannica. The region remained under primarily Roman rule until the early sixth century.

Wouldn't that have made these "Conquered Grapes"?

[Steven Scharf]

I live near a Mount Trashmore that covers about 300 acres and it about 200 feet high.

I am at a loss as to why Americans are not burning their trash in high end incinerators that have clean emissions and generates electricity.

Virtually all of the trash in Maine is burned this way.

[vmpolesov]

The aqueducts?

[PGR88]

A roman walks into a bar

Roman: I’ll have the usual

Bartender: Martini, coming up!

Roman: Hey, if I wanted a double, I would have asked for it.

[Pontiac]

The company I worked for had a small demonstration plant to burn trash.

The biggest problem was the sorting of trash. Just too expensive. If certain things get fed in to the boiler it produces slag that can damage boiler tubes

The plant had several shutdowns due to this problems with feed material.

The original plan was to have automated sorting and that then led to human sorters following the auto sort.

There were other problems with getting a clean burn and consistent BTU output per pound fed to the boiler.

The grid gets upset if the plant has wild swings in output.

There were also problems with the emissions meeting EPA standards.

Eventually it was decided that the plant could not be made economically viable.

[Steven Scharf]

ecomaine in Portland, Maine has been burning trash for over 35 years and making money at it once they solved poorly designed original financing of the project.

[SunkenCiv]

lol