"The Origins and Ancient History of Wine"

How is winemaking different from viniculture? Why does Noah have a hypothesis named after him? What's a pip (other than a backup singer)? Find out below.


C o n t e n t s :

Intro- living out our past through wine

Neolithic Period - "chateau hajji firuz"

- wine for the afterlife

- under the grape arbors...

One of a kind laboratory
- ancient evidence; modern technology

Map - wine's whereabouts: then and now

The grapevine & tree resins - nature's ingredients


Glossary of Terms

how do you like your wine?

brawny: hard and intense wines with raw, woody flavors

dumb: a phase young wines undergo when their flavors are undeveloped

fat: full-bodied wines that give a "fat" impression on the palate

herbaceous: wines with the taste and smell of herbs

meaty: red wines with plenty of concentration; sometimes with a slight aroma of cooked meat

rustic: wines made by old-fashioned methods or tasting like wines made in an earlier era

toasty: a flavor derived from the oak barrels in which wines are aged

archaeobotany - the study of ancient plant remains, including pollen, seeds, leaves, fruits, etc. to shed light on the environment of an archaeological site, human land-use, and diet.

calcium tartrate - the insoluble calcium salt of tartaric acid, which readily forms in a calcareous (limestone) geological terrain and accumulates inside ancient wine vessels.

canonical - established or authorized.
cylinder seals - incised cylinders that were rolled over a wet clay tablet or the stopper of a jar; the designs left on the clay might mark the identity of the owner or the jar's contents and origins (much like a modern wine bottle label).

Elam - ancient kingdom of lower Mesopotamia, located in the lowlands and mountains of the southern Zagros, at the head of the Persian Gulf.

entrepôt - major center for the exchange of goods.

fermentation - the conversion of sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide by the action of yeast microorganisms.

in situ - literally, "in position." In archaeological terminology, it refers to an artifact, architectural feature or other find that has been excavated or exposed in its original, ancient context.

- the region of the Middle East that extends along the Eastern Mediterranean, including the coastal and inland regions of modern Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank and Gaza.

Noah hypothesis - the theory that the wild Eurasian grapevine was taken into cultivation and eventually developed as our domesticated type in only one region of the world (e.g., the Caucasus Mountains). The domesticated plant would then have been transplanted elsewhere—to Greece, Italy and France, and most recently, California and New Zealand. The hypothesis takes its name from the patriarch, Noah, who is said to have planted a vineyard on Mount Ararat after the flood. (Genesis 9).

organic - containing compounds principally made up of carbon and hydrogen, the building blocks of living organisms.

pips - another term for the seeds inside grapes.

psychotropic - acting on the mind

tartaric acid - the principal acid of grapes and wine, composed of four carbon, four oxygen and six hydrogen atoms. It occurs naturally in large amounts only in grapes.

transplantation - a horticultural method in which cuttings or roots of a parent plant are physically moved to another location and re-rooted or grafted to another plant. In this way, the same genetic clones with desirable characteristics (whether plant hardiness and disease resistance or fruit size, juiciness and taste) can be regenerated for thousands of years.

viniculture - the science and art of cultivating, tending and transplanting grapevines, especially to achieve the best balance of sugar, acidity, alcohol, and other constituents of the grape in making wine. Viticulture refers to grape horticulture in general, in which grapes are selected and cultivated for eating, making raisins, etc.


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