The world's oldest wine was found in Spain: what a muddy liquid with the ashes of the dead looks like. Photo

The oldest wine in the world was found in a Roman tomb in Spain. The five liters of red-brown liquid also contained the remains of the cremated bone of the deceased.

Archaeologists discovered an urn with a cloudy liquid in a family mausoleum dating back to the first century AD in the Carmona necropolis in Seville. According to the results of a chemical study, this liquid is recognized as the oldest wine that has survived in liquid form to this day, Arkeonews reports.

The urn with wine was found by accident. A Spanish family, who was doing some work in their home in Carmona, came across a sunken tomb on the territory of their estate. This tomb, which archaeologists dated to the beginning of the first century AD, contained eight niches. Six of the niches contained urns with cremated remains and various objects typical of Roman funeral rituals. Two of the urns were inscribed with the names of the deceased: Hispanae and Senicio.

However, the urn in niche 8 attracted the most attention of archaeologists. Inside the oval lead box with a domed lid was a glass pot with M-shaped handles. Inside this pot, which was the urn, five liters of cloudy liquid were found in addition to bone remains.

Experts from the University of Cordoba analyzed the substance found and found that the ancient liquid inside the urn was a local wine similar to sherry. The liquid in the urn was reddish-brown due to chemical reactions that took place over 2000 years.

The extraordinary durability of the wine in its liquid state is a testament to the sophisticated Roman methods of preservation and storage, as well as the excellent climatic conditions that allowed it to be stored for almost two millennia.

According to scholars, the use of wine in Roman funeral rituals is well-known and documented. Ancient writings describe that after the cremated remains were placed in an urn, it was filled with wine in a kind of ritual during the burial ceremony. According to the beliefs of our ancestors, this ritual was supposed to help the deceased in an easy transition to a better world.

Until now, the oldest wine preserved in a liquid state was a bottle of wine that was excavated from a Roman tomb near the German city of Speyer in 1867 and dated to about 325 AD.

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