Scientists find world's oldest surviving wine

In 2019, a circular 1st-century mausoleum with rich grave goods was discovered during the renovation of a house in Carmona, Spain. Among other things, a glass ashtray urn containing a strange reddish liquid. The liquid, preserved after 2,000 years, is a "miracle" in itself, but the liquid has now been analysed and found to contain wine. The world's oldest wine.

The mausoleum lay beneath a modern house. Apparently it belonged to a wealthy family. It originally stood next to an important road that connected Carmo with Hispalis (today's Seville) and had a tower that has not survived. The vaulted space consisted of eight burial niches (loculi), six of which contained urns with cremated remains and several tombstones.

The niche marked "Loculus 8" contained a glass funerary urn inside a lead case with a lid. The urn contained cremated male remains, a gold ring bearing the likeness of the double-headed Janus, and four metal objects that may have come from the legs of the burial bed. The container was filled to the brim with a reddish liquid.

Archaeologists have ruled out the possibility of secondary filling with water. "Although 2,000 years have passed, the conditions of preservation of the tomb were extraordinary; the intact and well-sealed tomb allowed the liquid to maintain its natural state and eliminated negative external influences such as flooding, leaks inside the chamber or condensation processes," he added.

The team's next task was to confirm whether the reddish liquid was indeed wine. To this end, a team from the Department of Organic Chemistry at the University of Cordoba, led by Professor José Rafael Ruiz Arrebol, carried out a series of chemical analyses in collaboration with archaeologists from the Carmona Municipality and published them in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

They examined the pH, the (non-)presence of organic matter, mineral salts, and the presence of certain chemical compounds that could be related to the urn glass or the bones of the deceased. They compared the findings with contemporary wines from the brands Montilla-Moriles, Jerez and Sanlúcar. The key to identification depended on polyphenols, biomarkers typically present in all wines. Thanks to a technique capable of identifying these compounds in very small quantities, the experts found seven specific polyphenols. They have thus obtained the first proof that the liquid is really wine.

The most difficult thing was to determine the origin of the wine, as there are no samples from the same period to compare it with. They therefore used inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to determine the chemical elements in the mineral salts of the wine. The lack of syringic acid, a polyphenol found in the decomposition of pigments in red wine, and the mineral salt profile confirmed that this was a white wine. Its mineral salts are consistent with the white wines produced in the area, particularly the Montilla-Moriles wines.

The wine, rings, perfume and other artefacts were part of a burial ritual to accompany the deceased on their journey to the afterlife. The male remains were not placed in the wine vessel by accident. In ancient Rome, women were forbidden to drink wine for a long time. It was simply a "man's" drink. The urn with the female remains did not contain a drop of wine. But inside were three amber jewels, a bottle of patchouli-scented perfume and remnants of silk fabric.

Roman Nemec

Sources: phys.org, sciencedirect.com

(a), (b) The burial chamber. (c) The urn in niche 8. (d) The case containing the urn. (e)

Detail of the burial urn

detail of a glass urn with lead wrapping and wine inside.

The wine was placed in a glass funeral urn containing the remains of a deceased man.

entrance to the tomb

tests of the contents