Researchers have identified a mysterious 2,000-year-old liquid as the oldest wine ever discovered, according to a study.
The reddish liquid was found in an unlooted Roman mausoleum in Carmona, southern Spain, in 2019, contained within a glass funerary urn.
The authors of the study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, said this was a "rather exceptional and unexpected" discovery.
Subsequent analysis, detailed in the study, has now revealed that the material in the urn represents the oldest wine conserved in its liquid state. It appears that this liquid was used in a Roman burial ritual during which cremated human remains were immersed in the wine.
Previously, researchers have detected the residues of ancient wines on the surfaces of container vessels, with the oldest remains stretching as far back as roughly 8,000 years ago. But finding ancient wine in its liquid state is extremely rare. In fact, prior to the latest study, no analysis of ancient wines in their liquid states had ever been reported in the scientific literature.
Until now, the presumed oldest wine preserved in its liquid state was the so-called "Speyer wine bottle"—which is thought to be around 1,700 years old. This sealed bottle was found in a tomb in the city of Speyer, Germany, in 1867. The liquid inside is suspected to be wine from the 4th century, but the bottle has never been opened. As a result, the identity of the liquid has yet to be confirmed by chemical analysis.
The primary aim of the latest study was to determine whether the liquid in the urn recovered from the Carmona mausoleum was wine or decayed wine. To do this, the researchers looked for the presence of characteristic chemical markers, such as certain polyphenols (a group of naturally occurring plant compounds) and mineral salts.
"At first we were very surprised that liquid was preserved in one of the funerary urns," Juan Manuel Román, the city of Carmona's municipal archaeologist and an author of the study, said in a press release.
The extraordinary conservation state of the mausoleum enabled the preservation of the liquid wine. The collective tomb was found intact and had been well-sealed for roughly 2,000 years, preventing flooding, leaks inside the chamber or condensation processes.
This presented researchers with a "unique opportunity" to examine the chemical composition of a liquid that potentially represented the oldest wine in the world.
The team's analysis revealed the mineral salt profile of the liquid, and, detected certain typical polyphenols, which enabled them to identify it as white wine. The reddish hue of the wine is something that has developed over time because of chemical reactions, according to the researchers.
Intriguingly, the funerary urn holding the wine also contained the cremated bone remains of a male individual, as well as a gold ring. This urn was one of six containing cremated bone remains—those of three males and three females—that were found within niches in the wall of the mausoleum chamber. Only one urn contained the reddish liquid, however.
"Despite the initial surprise, we immediately concluded that the liquid could not have reached the inside of the urn through flooding or leakage in the burial chamber, nor through condensation, especially when the inside of the urn in the adjacent niche... was under identical environmental conditions but completely dry," the authors wrote in the study.
The use of wine in Roman burial rituals is well-known and documented—the beverage was highly symbolic and had a religious significance. There is evidence that wine was usually placed together with water and foods, such as honey, among burial furnishings to accompany the deceased in their transition to the afterlife.
In the case of the Carmona urn, the researchers believe that the cremated remains were immersed in wine as part of such a ceremony.
According to the researchers, the mausoleum was probably used during the first half of the 1st century. This estimate is based on the materials found within the collective tomb—which include various objects typically used in burial rituals and offerings, such as preserved fabric remains and amber—as well as structural similarities with other burial places.
The mausoleum was unearthed in 2019 during rehabilitation works on a house in Carmona, which is located around 20 miles west of Seville in Spain's Andalusia region. The mausoleum belonged to a necropolis in the ancient Roman city of Carmo. This settlement became an important municipality in the region during antiquity, enjoying abundant wheat and olive oil resources. It is thought that the mausoleum likely belongs to a family.
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