Emily Chan
It’s been a big year for the archaeology world. Archaeologists have been making fascinating discoveries left and right.
In Egypt, hundreds of well-preserved wine jars were uncovered within an ancient royal tomb during a recent excavation.
The jars are around 5,000 years old, are large in size, and still contain wine. They were found tightly sealed and appeared to have never been opened.
The site where the wine jars were discovered is located in the ancient Egyptian city of Abydos.
Abydos is one of the most important archaeological sites in the nation. It is an area known for being home to several royal tombs from the Early Dynastic Period, an era that started around the third millennium B.C. and lasted for about four centuries.
Wine-centric discoveries, in general, are rare, let alone jars full of wine that are intact and sealed.
The wine jars can help make significant contributions to experts’ understanding of early wine production and how the practice spread across the ancient Mediterranean regions.
According to lecturer Emlyn Dodd from the Institute of Classical Studies, the analysis of residue in the jars could potentially reveal the flavor of the wine and some of the ingredients used to make it, such as honey, spices, or seawater.
Researchers stumbled upon the jars while at the tomb of Queen Merneith, who is considered by some scholars to be the first female pharaoh of Egypt. However, much of her life is a mystery. The excavations have helped reveal more details about the role she played in ancient Egypt’s First Dynasty.
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