- The oldest evidence of wine-making was discovered outside of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.
- Nearly 8,000-year-old earthenware jars contained the residual chemicals of wine and were decorated with images of grapes and a dancing man.
- These artifacts suggest humans were making and drinking wine at least 500 years earlier than previously thought.
WASHINGTON — Oenophiles take note: 5980 BC was a very good year for wine.
Scientists on Monday announced the discovery of the oldest-known evidence of wine-making — they had detected telltale chemical signs of the fermented alcoholic beverage made from grapes in fragments of nearly 8,000-year-old earthenware jars at two sites about 30 miles south of Georgia's capital, Tbilisi.
The findings show that this important cultural achievement occurred earlier than previously known in the South Caucasus region on the border of eastern Europe and western Asia. Until now, the oldest wine-making evidence had come from pottery from the Zagros Mountains, in northwestern Iran, dating to 5400 to 5000 BC.
"Alcohol had an important role in societies in the past just as today," said Stephen Batiuk, an archaeologist at the University of Toronto who was one of the researchers in the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Wine is central to civilization as we know it in the West," Batiuk added. "As a medicine, social lubricant, mind-altering substance, and highly valued commodity, wine became the focus of religious cults, pharmacopoeias, cuisines, economies, and society in the ancient Near East."
David Lordkipanidze, the director of the Georgian National Museum who helped lead the research, said the large jars, called qvevri, were similar to those still used today for wine-making in Georgia.
The researchers performed biochemical analyses to find residual wine compounds the pottery had absorbed. Patrick McGovern, a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania, found evidence of tartaric acid, an indication of brewing involving the Eurasian grape, as well as three associated organic acids: malic, succinic, and citric.
The pottery was found in two Neolithic villages, once home to perhaps 60 people each, consisting of small mud-brick houses. The villagers harvested wheat; raised sheep, goat, and cattle; and used simple tools made of bone and volcanic glass called obsidian.
The grayish jars, some decorated with simple images of grape clusters and a man dancing, were roughly 32 inches tall and 16 inches wide. Evidence of wine was spotted in eight jars, the oldest from about 5980 BC.
"The wine was probably made similarly to the traditional qvevri method in Georgia today, where the grapes are crushed and the fruit, stems, and seeds are all fermented together," Batiuk said.
This is not the earliest sign of any alcoholic beverage. Researchers previously found evidence of a fermented alcoholic mix of rice, honey, and fruit from about 7000 BC in China.
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