Intact Roman wine found in Spain

[guy]

 

During an excavation in Carmona, Southern Spain in 2019, an intact reddish liquid was found in an urn. A study showed that it was likely white wine. Wine was often buried with food and water to accompany the deceased in the afterlife. The wine was discovered in one of the niches (L-8) of the mausoleum and could date back to the 1st or 2nd century AD.

Below is a picture of the urn with the reddish liquid

 

 

 

Quote

The urn in L-8 not only contained bone remains and a gold ring carved with Jano Bifronte, but it was also filled to the brim with a reddish liquid. Despite the initial surprise, we immediately concluded that the liquid could not have reached the inside of the urn through flooding or leakage in the burial chamber, nor through condensation, especially when the inside of the urn in the adjacent niche, L-7, was under identical environmental conditions but completely dry.

 

Quote

The exceptional finding in an unlooted Roman mausoleum in Carmona, southern Spain, of an ash urn containing cremated human remains and a reddish liquid that had remained intact for about 2000 years was a unique opportunity to examine the chemical composition of the liquid to ascertain whether it was the oldest wine in the world. The mineral salt composition of the liquid was quite similar to fino wines currently produced in the former Baetic region. The presence in the liquid of increased concentrations of some chemical elements can be ascribed to leaching from the urn glass and cremated remains and suggests that the liquid might be decayed wine. In fact, its elemental analysis revealed a carbon content of only 0.46 %, which suggests strong mineralisation of the original organic compounds. Analysing the liquid for polyphenols typically present in current wines allowed further insight into the identity of the liquid. The results confirmed with a high certainty that the liquid was wine and, more specifically, white wine, an assumption strengthened by the presence of ethanol at very low concentration. However surprising, this result is consistent with the very good preservation condition of the studied mausoleum

 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X24002645

 

https://m.jpost.com/archaeology/article-807136

 

 

 

 

 

There have been many previous posts about Roman wines:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 22 by guy