NEOLITHIC people were no strangers to the misery of hangovers. US researchers have discovered that people in the Middle East were knocking back wine at least 7000 years ago鈥攕ome 2000 years earlier than previously thought. And it probably tasted like turpentine.
Patrick McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia and his colleagues found a yellowish residue at the bottom of an ancient pottery jar from Haji Firuz Tepe, Iran. Radiocarbon analysis dated the jar to between 5400 and 5000 BC.
In this week鈥檚 Nature, McGovern鈥檚 team reports that the yellow residue contained two hallmarks of wine. The first was traces of tartaric acid, a compound only found in large quantities in grapes. The residue also contained resin from the terebinth tree, historically a popular additive to wines. The resin helps to prevent the growth of microorganisms that would turn the wine into vinegar.
Advertisement
It is not clear whether the wine was white or red. 鈥淚t was probably red,鈥� says McGovern, 鈥渂ut we don鈥檛 know for sure.鈥� While historical literature suggests that nearly all early wines were red, the residue in the Iranian pot mysteriously contains no trace of the tannins that colour red wines.
Even less clear is what the wine would have tasted like. But the terebinth鈥檚 lesser known name is the turpentine tree. Combining terebinth resin with a volatile oil gives an effective paint solvent. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not exactly the kind of taste or smell that you鈥檇 necessarily want,鈥� says McGovern. 鈥淏ut I think it would dominate.鈥�