Wine and the Vine: The Archaeological and Chemical Hunt for the Origins of Viniculture

Patrick E. McGovern

Senior Research Scientist and Adj. Associate Prof., Anthropology

Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology

University of Pennsylvania Museum

An illustrated lecture sponsored by the Classical Studies Program and the University of Arkansas Classical Studies student honorary society Eta Sigma Phi.

Monday, October 18, 6:00 PM

Giffels Auditorium, Old Main

University of Arkansas

The history of civilization is, in many ways, the history of wine. Drawing upon recent archaeological discoveries, molecular and DNA sleuthing, and the texts and art of long-forgotten peoples, Patrick McGovern takes us on a fascinating odyssey back to the beginnings of this consequential beverage when early hominids probably enjoyed a wild grape wine. We follow the course of human ingenuity in domesticating the Eurasian vine and learning how to make and preserve wine some 7,000 years ago.

Viniculture stretched out its tentacles and entwined itself with one culture after another (whether Egyptian, Iranian, Israelite, or Greek) and laid the foundation for civilization itself. As medicine, social lubricant, mind-altering substance, and highly valued commodity, wine became the focus of religious cults, pharmacopoeias, cuisines, economies, and society. As an evocative symbol of blood, it was used in temple ceremonies and occupies the heart of the Eucharist. Kings celebrated their victories with wine and made certain that they had plenty for the afterlife.

Dr. Patrick E. McGovern has pioneered the emerging field of Molecular Archaeology. He has focused on the organic analysis of vessel contents and dyes, particularly Royal Purple, wine, and beer. The chemical confirmation of the earliest instances of these organics--Royal Purple dating to ca. 1300-1200 B.C. and wine and beer dating to ca. 3500-3100B.C.--received wide media coverage. A 1996 article published in Nature, the international scientific journal, pushes the earliest date for wine back another 2000 years--to the Neolithic period (ca. 5400-5000B.C.). The most recent manifestation of what Molecular Archaeology is capable of achieving is the King Midas funerary feast, which was the cover story of the Dec. 23, 1999 issue of Nature. He is the author of the recently published Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture (Princeton University Press), 2003.

In addition to over 80 periodical articles, McGovern has also written or edited 8 books, including The Origins and Ancient History of Wine (Gordon and Breach, 1996), Organic Contents of Ancient Vessels (MASCA, 1990), Cross-Craft and Cross-Cultural Interactions in Ceramics (American Ceramic Society, 1989), and Late Bronze Palestinian Pendants: Innovation in a Cosmopolitan Age (Sheffield, 1985). In 2000, his book on the Foreign Relations of the "Hyksos," a scientific study of Middle Bronze pottery in the Eastern Mediterranean, was published by Archaeopress.

As a Research Associate in the Near East Section of the Museum, he has also directed the Baq`ah Valley (Jordan) Project over the past 20 years (described in a University Museum monograph, The Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages of Central Transjordan, 1986), and been involved many other excavations throughout the Middle East as a pottery and stratigraphic consultant. A detailed study of the New Kingdom Egyptian garrison at Beth Shan, an older Museum excavation, also appeared in 1994 in the Museum Monograph series, entitled The Late Bronze Egyptian Garrison at Beth Shan.

For further information, contact Daniel B. Levine, Professor, Classical Studies: dlevine@uark.edu

See more of Patrick McGovern's Work, With Illustrations:

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~mcgovern/

http://www.museum.upenn.edu/Midas/intro.html

http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Wine/wineintro.html

http://www.upenn.edu/museum/News/beer.html

http://pup.princeton.edu/titles/7591.html