Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture

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Princeton University Press, Oct 1, 2019 - Social Science - 464 pages

A richly illustrated account of the story of ancient viniculture

The history of civilization is, in many ways, the history of wine. This book is the first comprehensive account of the earliest stages of the history and prehistory of viniculture, which extends back into the Neolithic period and beyond. Elegantly written and richly illustrated, Ancient Wine opens up whole new chapters in the fascinating story of wine by drawing on recent archaeological discoveries, molecular and DNA sleuthing, and the writings and art of ancient peoples. In a new afterword, the author discusses exciting recent developments in the understanding of ancient wine, including a new theory of how viniculture came to central and northern Europe.

 

Contents

Stone Age Wine 1
1
The Noah Hypothesis 16
16
The Archaeological and Chemical Hunt
40
A Beverage and a Medicine
70
Wine of the Earliest Pharaohs
85
Wine of Egypts Golden Age
107
Wine and the Great Empires of the Ancient
167
The Holy Lands Bounty
210
Greece
239
A Beverage for King Midas and at the Limits
279
Molecular Archaeology Wine and a View
299
Afterword
317
Selected Bibliography
375
Illustration Credits
397
Index
403
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About the author (2019)

Patrick E. McGovern is scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Project for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. He is the author of Uncorking the Past and Ancient Brews and has collaborated with Dogfish Head Brewery to recreate a series of ancient ales.

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