World’s Oldest Wine Discovered in an Urn Mixed With Cremated Human Remains
The world’s oldest wine found inside a glass urn — with the surprising ingredient of human cremains. (Photo: Juan Manuel Román/University of Cordoba)
The University of Cordoba issued a report on Tuesday divulging that Spanish historians discovered the oldest wine in the world housed in an urn with cremated human remains. The wine dates back 2,000 years and was found in a sunken tomb on the property of a family home.
In 2019, the family was having some construction done on their property in Carmona, Spain, when they discovered the tomb. They called archaeologists as soon as the discovery was made.
“You’ve got to applaud the civic spirit of the house’s owners who called the town’s archaeological department straight away,” University of Córdoba Organic Chemist José Rafael Ruiz Arrebola said, according to The Guardian. “The town archaeologists quickly realized that the tomb was incredibly unusual because it hadn’t been raided or looted — Romans were proud, even in death, and used to build funeral monuments, such as towers, over their tombs so people could see them. They wanted to remain in people’s memories.”
Archaeologists found six urns and eight burial niches. The urns were made from a variety of materials which included lead, glass, limestone or sandstone. Two of the urns had the names “Hispanae” and “Senicio” inscribed on them, which scientists presumed were the names of the deceased individuals.
An image of the tomb (a) the funeral chamber (b) an Urn in niche 8 (d) a lead case with the urn inside.
The University of Cordoba reported that four other unnamed individuals’ remains were found inside the tomb, and they were two men and two women. Scientists deduced the tomb belonged to a wealthy family.
A crystal bottle of patchouli Roman perfume was also found inside.
But perhaps the most interesting find was the urn full of wine. Archaeologists claimed it contained cremated bones identified as belonging to a man. A golden ring inscribed with the Roman god Janus was also found inside the urn filled with wine, according to The Guardian.
“We looked for biomarkers, which are chemical compounds that unequivocally tell you what a particular substance is,” a scientist explained, according to The Guardian. “In this case, we looked for polyphenols exclusively from wine — and we found seven wine polyphenols. We compared those polyphenols with those wines from this part of Andalucía — and they matched. So that confirmed it was wine. The next thing to do was to establish whether it was a white wine or a red wine.”
Scientists discovered it was a white wine due to a lack of a compound called syringic acid, a compound that forms as red wines decompose. They deduced it was some kind of sherry-type wine that is found in modern-day Andalucía.
In October, archaeologists in Egypt found 5,000-year-old wine jars — with no wine inside — and the remains of 41 people in the tomb of what scientists believed to be an ancient Egyptian queen. Her name was Meret-Neith and she was believed to be the most powerful woman of the first dynasty, predating the iconic ruler Hatshepsut who reigned over Egypt 17 dynasties later.
Scientists couldn’t conclude if the wine was red or white, due to the fact it evaporated with time, and they claimed it was the second oldest evidence of wine’s existence. Until now.
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