The precious liquid, kept in an urn, was found by a team of Spanish researchers in a Roman tomb dating from the 1st century AD near Seville.
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It is not necessarily drinkable, even if it is not toxic, assure its discoverers: the oldest liquid wine has just been discovered in Spain. This discovery was made by a team of researchers from the University of Cordoba, in a Roman tomb dating from the 1st century AD.
The precious liquid was in a small glass urn in one of the burial niches of this tomb discovered in 2019 in Carmona, near Seville. As a publication in the Journal Of Archeological Science reveals, after numerous chemical analyses, there is no possible doubt: the presence of typical molecules, polyphenols as well as characteristic mineral salts, demonstrate that it is white wine, despite the red-brown color taken by the beverage over the centuries.
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Mixed with remains of cremated bones and a gold ring, this wine was part of the funeral trousseau which accompanied the deceased who died 2000 years ago to the afterlife.
Before this discovery, it was a liquid found in Germany, also in a Roman tomb but dating only from the 4th century, which was considered the oldest wine thus preserved. On the other hand, we know of traces of wine, simple chemical traces, found on Georgian pottery which date back around 8000 years, to the Neolithic era.
