Jars recovered from the seabed and courting again to the Roman interval have provided extra clues about winemaking and storage on this period, in accordance with a research that used a combination of research strategies.
A mixture of chemical markers, plant tissue residue and pollen evaluation helped researchers to construct an image concerning the doable contents of three amphorae ‘wine jars’ found close to the coastal city of San Felice Circeo, round 90km south-east of Rome.
‘The proof suggests the amphorae had been utilized in each crimson and white winemaking processes,’ mentioned a press launch on the research, which was revealed within the peer-reviewed PLOS One journal this week.
Researchers additionally discovered proof of pine residue within the jars, and it’s thought that pine tar pitch might have been used to waterproof the amphorae.
However the researchers added the pine was additionally maybe used to flavour the wine, and famous proof of this follow has been discovered at different archaeological websites.
Pine tar pitch was seemingly transported from modern-day Calabria or Sicily, mentioned the research’s authors. Historic sources from the time, together with Pliny the Elder, point out these areas as famend for pitch manufacturing.
Researchers mentioned that traces of grapevine pollen within the jars matched native plant species samples.
‘Based mostly on the finds of aporate Vitis pollen, discovered additionally in native fashionable and Center Pleistocene samples, we hypothesise the usage of autochthonous vines,’ they mentioned.
But researchers weren’t in a position to affirm whether or not vines had been domesticated or wild, and in addition provided a number of hypotheses across the jars’ exact contents.
The authors of the PLOS One research, led by Louise Chassouant of Avignon College, emphasised the advantages of their multi-disciplinary method to analyzing artefacts.
‘Through the use of completely different approaches to unravel the content material and nature of the coating layer of Roman amphorae, we have now pushed the conclusion additional within the understanding of historic practices than it might have been with a single method,’ they mentioned.
A number of research have explored the historical past of wine in several societies and eras extra immediately. Final yr, a serious vineyard complicated courting again round 1,500 years was unearthed by archaeologists in Israel.
Entry the complete PLOS One article, which is freely out there.
