Researchers from Brandeis University, in Waltham, Mass., unearthed what could be the world's oldest wine cellar.
Archeologist Andrew Koh and his colleagues found the wine cellar at Tel Kabri, an archaeological site in present-day Israel. The team first spotted a 3-foot jar, which they dubbed as Bessie, and proceeded to locate 39 more. The jars were arranged in a room that was estimated to be capable of storing up to 528 gallons of wine. The room was located next to the banquet hall of the Canaanite palace.
"What we have is quite substantial - 40 jars - but it's not enough to redistribute to the whole countryside, so we're arguing that this is the personal or palatial wine cellar," Koh told Live Science. "It's for a nuclear kind of in-group, whether it's the family or clan, and it's for local, on-the-spot consumption. But it's still a lot of wine - they must have thrown large parties."
The palatial complex was once home to a Canaanite community. The room where the wine jars were found was likely one of the rooms of a wealthy family's home during the 1900 B.C and 1600 B.C. Aside from the wine cellar, the researchers also excavated some artifacts and artworks, revealing that the Canaanites traded with people from Egypt, as well as settlements located in Mesopotamia and nearby areas.
The wine samples gathered from the 32 jars contained tartaric acid. Every jar, except three, had traces of syringic acid, a primary ingredient used in making red wine. Those jars without syringic acid were presumed to be the earliest storage jars of white wine.
The team also found traces of pine resin and cedar. The resin might have been added to the jars to prolong the shelf life of the wine because of its anti-bacterial power, while the cedar was primarily used in the ancient times to distill the wine.
Further details of this study were published in the Aug. 28 issue of PLOS ONE.
