Oldest Wine in History Discovered in Ancient Roman Tomb

August 31, 2024 5:02 PM

"In 2019, a Roman tomb in Carmona was uncovered, revealing the remains of six individuals—Hispana, Senicio, two other men, and two women, whose names remain unknown. These inhabitants from 2,000 years ago likely never envisioned their funerary rituals gaining significance in the modern era. During one such ritual, the skeletal remains of one of the men were submerged in a liquid contained within a glass funerary urn."

Leftover from the wake, one supposes.

Deeper sciency stuff here

posted by BWA (6 comments total)

Well damn that's a hell of a Sourtoe
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:35 PM on August 31

Guess they didn't try it, given that the bones were submerged in it. Kind of a bummer.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 5:49 PM on August 31

I would drink the ancient bone wine
posted by saladin at 6:21 PM on August 31 [2 favorites]

Yes but would you use "ancient bone wine" as a user name?
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:36 PM on August 31 [2 favorites]

Metafilter: ancient bone wine
posted by pullayup at 7:48 PM on August 31 [2 favorites]

The odd part is if you look through fermentation history, you'll see a number of recipes that call for hanging a side of meat or adding ground up meat to a batch of ale, cider, mead, wine, etc. The reported effects were always that it produced a beverage that was cleaner, clearer and crisper. What they hadn't realized at the time was that the meat was adding nutrients for the yeast and possibly gelatin for clearing.

This might be slightly different. :)

It's absolutely fascinating how much they can pull from molecular analysis of jars and bronze vessels. They've pulled profiles of beverages that were a mix of grapes, barley, rice and hawthorne from bronze vessels in ancient China for instance.
posted by drewbage1847 at 8:41 PM on August 31 [1 favorite]