Red Liquid in Ossuary... 'Over 2000-Year-Old Roman Wine' Discovered in Spain

Remains Found in Roman Era Tomb Jar
Red Hue Due to White Wine Oxidation

The oldest wine remaining in liquid form has been discovered.

According to foreign media on the 22nd, a research team led by Professor Jose Rafael Luis Arevola of the Department of Organic Chemistry at the University of Cordoba, Spain, recently announced in the international academic journal 'Archaeological Journal: Reports' that they found wine contained in an ossuary jar in a Roman-era tomb.

The oldest wine in the world.
[Photo by Juan Manuel Roman Research Team]

The paper is scheduled for official publication in September.

The research team discovered a red liquid inside an ossuary jar in a Roman-era tomb created about 2,000 years ago in Carmona village, Seville province, Andalusia region, southern Spain, where an ancient city once existed, in 2019.

The tomb was found when a family was renovating an old house and immediately reported it to the authorities. The research team found ossuaries in recessed spaces made by digging into the tomb's inner walls, discovering ossuaries in 6 out of 8 wall niches (loculi), with two jars bearing the names Senicio and Hispanae, respectively.

From the ossuary in the 8th niche on the right side when viewed from the entrance, they found a gold ring and 5 liters of liquid. Analysis confirmed the presence of polyphenols, tannins, benzoic acid, and other substances commonly found in modern wines.

Further investigation revealed that although the liquid was reddish, it was white wine. This was because the alcohol content was low and syringic acid, which forms when anthocyanins?the main pigments of red wine?decompose, was not detected. The research team estimated that the white wine had oxidized over time, causing it to take on a reddish hue.

The research team stated that while ancient wine residues absorbed into container walls or various debris had been found and analyzed before, this is the first analysis of wine in liquid form.

Professor Jose Rafael Luis Arevola, who led the research, said, "Thanks to the stone tomb, such artifacts could remain intact even after 2,000 years."

Previously, the oldest liquid wine was the Speyer wine from Germany, made about 1,699 years ago. This wine was found in a glass bottle in a Roman tomb near the city of the same name and is displayed in a local museum.