A storage room unearthed from the ruins of a 1700 B.C. Canaanite palace in northern Israel held the remains of 40 ceramic jars.
Posted on 11/23/2013 6:03:17 AM PST by NYer
Digging this summer at the ruins of a 1700 B.C. Canaanite palace in northern Israel, archaeologists struck wine.
Near the banquet hall where rulers of a Middle Bronze Age city-state and their guests feasted, a team of American and Israeli researchers broke through to a storage room holding the remains of 40 large ceramic jars. The vessels were broken, their liquid contents long since vanished — but not without a trace.
A chemical analysis of residues left in the three-foot-tall jars detected organic traces of acids that are common components of all wine, as well as ingredients popular in ancient winemaking. These included honey, mint, cinnamon bark, juniper berries and resins used as a preservative. The recipe was similar to medicinal wines used for 2,000 years in ancient Egypt and probably tasted something like retsina or other resinous Greek wines today.
So the archaeologists who have been exploring the Canaanite site, known as Tel Kabri, announced on Friday that they had found one of civilization’s oldest and largest wine cellars. The storage room held the equivalent of about 3,000 bottles of red and white wines, they said — and they suspected that this was not the palace’s only wine cellar.
“This is a hugely significant discovery,” said Eric H. Cline, a co-director of the Tel Kabri excavations, in a statement issued by George Washington University, where he is chairman of the department of classical and Near Eastern languages and civilizations. “It’s a wine cellar that, to our knowledge, is largely unmatched in its age and size.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ping!
“This wine’s recipe was strictly followed in each and every jar.”
... or, they came from an even BIGGER vessel, from which 40 vessels were poured from.
I wonder how it taste?
I would imagine there were vintners and brewers back then who sold their wares far and wide.
Dusty.
So moonshiners don’ use recipes????
Hmmmm.. I’m wondering what a bottle of 1700BC of Châteauneuf-du-Canaanite, would go for.. :)
If the container had been intact the wine would have turned to vinegar.
Rolling Stone tablet review of Canaanite Wines 1700BC:
“An earthy base with sweet hints of honey and mint followed by a spicy juniper berry and cinnamon finish”.
Shutup. ;-)
;-)
***cinnamon bark, juniper berries***
THE ANCIENTS HAD HOT DAMN AND GIN!
“something like retsina or other resinous Greek wines today.”
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Just an old country boy, don’t know a lot about wines but I believe I would prefer some Carolina Red from Duplin vineyards to “resinous Greek wines”. I do tend to favor the Muscadine varieties.
Grape juice
I only buy American wine actually. I know there is good wine everywhere. It is one product whose price relatively the same no matter what country makes it. I should order some of the Carolina Red.
Well, I was sort of refering to two different things. How the recipe is, and also if there was any wine in the containers how that would taste. As another freeper pointed out, it would turn vineger.
Hold muh wine and watch this.
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