Early Neolithic wine of Georgia in the South Caucasus

TLDR

Wine has been central to civilization, functioning as medicine, social lubricant, commodity, and cultural symbol in the ancient Near East. The study aims to provide the earliest biomolecular evidence for grape wine and viniculture in the Near East, dating to 6,000–5,800 BC, by analyzing materials from two Georgian sites. The authors applied advanced archaeological, archaeobotanical, climatic, and chemical analyses to newly excavated materials from those sites. The wine culture identified in Georgia subsequently spread worldwide.

Abstract

Significance The earliest biomolecular archaeological and archaeobotanical evidence for grape wine and viniculture from the Near East, ca. 6,000–5,800 BC during the early Neolithic Period, was obtained by applying state-of-the-art archaeological, archaeobotanical, climatic, and chemical methods to newly excavated materials from two sites in Georgia in the South Caucasus. Wine is central to civilization as we know it in the West. As a medicine, social lubricant, mind-altering substance, and highly valued commodity, wine became the focus of religious cults, pharmacopoeias, cuisines, economies, and society in the ancient Near East. This wine culture subsequently spread around the globe. Viniculture illustrates human ingenuity in developing horticultural and winemaking techniques, such as domestication, propagation, selection of desirable traits, wine presses, suitable containers and closures, and so on.