The world’s oldest wine in liquid form has been discovered in a Roman tomb, boasting a reddish-brown hue due to chemical reactions over its 2,000-year history.
This ancient wine was found in a funerary urn in southern Spain, alongside the cremated bones of a Roman.
Experts from the University of Cordoba analyzed the ancient liquid within the urn, which was uncovered in a rare, intact Roman tomb in the Andalusian town of Carmona five years ago. They found that the ancient liquid resembled sherry.
Prior to this discovery, reported in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, the oldest known wine preserved in liquid form was a bottle of Speyer wine from 325 AD, unearthed from a Roman tomb near the German city of Speyer in 1867.
The recently discovered tomb contained eight funerary niches, six of which held urns made of limestone, glass, and lead. Each urn contained the cremated remains of an individual, and two of the urns were inscribed with the names of the deceased: Hispanae and Senicio.