Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture

by Patrick E. McGovern

A richly illustrated account of the story of ancient viniculture

The history of civilization is, in many ways, the history of wine. This book is the first comprehensive account of the earliest stages of the history and prehistory of viniculture, which extends back into the Neolithic period and beyond. Elegantly written and richly illustrated, Ancient Wine opens up whole new chapters in the fascinating story of wine by drawing on recent archaeological discoveries, molecular and DNA sleuthing, and the writings and art of ancient peoples. In a new afterword, the author discusses exciting recent developments in the understanding of ancient wine, including a new theory of how viniculture came to central and northern Europe.

Genres: History, Wine, Nonfiction, Food, Food and Drink, Ancient History, Science

464 pages, Paperback

First published September 2, 2003

Reviews

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I might have given this work 4 or 5 stars if I was among those to whom it should appeal. It is not a general interest wine history, it is a serious (molecular) archaeological text. I found myself at times unable to read more than 20 pages some evenings, yawning and drifting off. I persisted however, and the book does have many wine nuggets among the endless details of different wine vessels, etc. I also found, as did other readers, that it tends to bounce around in time and location a bit confusingly. McGovern is a paragon in wine archeology, and his research is widely cited. The book was published around 2003 and now, in 2019, probably much new has been learned in the interim as the pace of the scientific side of this research seems to have been accelerating.
Anyway, I am on to Kevin Begos' "Tasting The Past" which, after the first few pages, looks to be more of what I was looking for, from a journalist's approach. Begos mentions McGovern in his sources and in the main body.

[Debby Zygielbaum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating dive into the ancient origins of wine. Suffered from lack of chronology as well as assuming one is knowledgeable about the ancient world (frankly, I didn't know my neolithic from my paleolithic from my chalcolithic). Still, a worthy and interesting read.

[Aithne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wonder how quickly I'd get wasted if I took a shot of a fermented beverage every time the phrase 'fermented beverage' appeared in this book.

Three stars might be a bit unfair, as - just like other reviewers - I might've approached this one with wrong expectations. I saw the title and got excited, and ofc forgot to pay attention to the subtitle, which is actually very honest and describes precisely what you'll find inside. Because the author is searching for 'the origins of viniculture', his work is centred around Georgia, Mesopotamia, Levant, Egypt, Turkey - then, at last, Crete and a bit of mainland Greece. No Rome. I think this bears repeating: there is zero information about wine in Ancient Rome in here. Greece is as far as we get. The author writes in the foreword that the original script of the book included chapters on Rome and Northern Europe as well, but he cut them out because he thought there's enough information about those regions already available. Welp, woe is me, as for me those parts would have been the most interesting...

As it is - I mean, it's fine, I learned a bunch of new things about places quite far removed from my area of interest, but it took me some time to get through this one. Especially 'cause the book isn't necessarily layman-friendly. There's lots of molecular archaeology in there, or even molecular biochemistry. Not quite my forte.

There were some minor things which were getting on my nerves: like the author talking about bringing this or that specimen 'back' to Penn (no, sir, you're not bringing it back. You are the one who's coming back, bringing with you a souvenir from a very foreign country). Or just the fact that there's so much 'me, me, me' in this book (idk why it annoyed me in here while I adored it in case of Francis Pryor. There was quite a lot of humour in Pryor's ramblings and here it's missing, maybe that's why?). Or - ok, I know this is a ridiculous complaint, but why is the insert with the colour plates in such a random place? That's not how you do it guys. It's illegal. You put such things very neatly in the very middle of the book, not just... somewhere 🙈.

It was informative and moderately interesting, but also difficult in a way I hadn't expected and not really what I'd hoped it would be. I'm cutting it some slack as I was trying to trudge through it at a really shitty time in my life, so - let's just say, all the surrounding circumstances weren't exactly making it easy to enjoy the reading experience.

I badly need some date wine. Or a mixed fermented beverage.

[Milo Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely detailed and informative while being approachable. You don't have to know the innermost working of archeology, chemistry, or botany in order to appreciate this book, even if is is going to show you the nitty gritty of all those subjects. As someone who has never read a spectograph, I was still able to understand how it related to to social history of wine and mentally place the morphology of grape pips into the timeline of agriculture. A fantastic book.

[Meghan Hester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warning: Reads like an anthropology/archaeology text. Molecular anthropology traces fermented wild grape juice back 7400 (!) years in great detail. Absolutely riveting for a student of archaeology, but definitely not a general history of wine.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1126010.html[return][return]a survey of recent findings in archaeology about early wine-making. McGowan concludes that grapes were first domesticated for wine-making in eastern Turkey or the south Caucasus (certainly my Georgian friends would agree, and would be a bit more specific). We wander around Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean, using the latest analytical techniques to try and pin down places of production and trade routes. The extent of the wine trade into ancient Egypt in particular was pretty remarkable, and the Mesopotamian sacred barmaids rather intriguing.[return][return]I wasn't completely satisfied by the book, however. It seemed a bit of an artificial distinction to relegate beer and mead to mere details, when it would seem that beer was at least as widespread. And while the argument about the extent of ancient international trade in wine was well developed, I would have liked more comparison with trade in other luxury goods, or indeed other goods at all. I have to say also that the style is at times an uncomfortable mix of the anecdotal and the jargon-ridden. I couldn't really recommend this book to people who are not already somewhat interested in the archaeology and culture of the period.[return]

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's some interesting tidbits here and there in the book. It also looks like a good starting point for someone interested in the history of alcoholic drinks. Also anyone interested in the history of the ancient world might be interested in. There's a couple of drawbacks though:[return][return]1) The book feels disorganized. You find yourself leaping from time period to time period and place to place.[return][return]2) Toward the very end of the book all the sudden there's maps which would have been much more usable in the start of the book.[return][return]3) The audience feels unclear. The author takes the time to explain molecular anthropology, but dives into using archeological terms without much explanation. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it's aimed for a layperson or student who has some familiarity with archeology.

[Michael Cahill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did you know that as soon as ceramics were invented, people in Mesopotamia were storing wine in pottery vessels? This was going on by 5500 BC in Mesopotamia. Those vessels were also specialised to prevent the entry of oxygen, so people already knew a lot about wince. Learn about the evidence for this and much more as McGovern walks you through the origins of wine in a thoroughly readable manner. I really enjoyed this book, and can recommend it without hesitation.

[Lindsey Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though dense, technical and scholastic - I wonder if this a research paper or a combination / elaboration of several - this is an interesting, in-depth look at the archaeological evidence for wine and how it relates to culture, religion and myth. The book does a good job of explaining what archaeological evidence can tell us and why, while cautioning against assumptions based in legend and secondhand accounts. A master timeline would have been useful to keep track of events.

[Sonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un gran libro para todos aquellos curiosos o interesados en la historia, los orígenes de la viticultura. Escrito con profundidad y rigor pero con un lenguaje muy divulgativo para hacerlo accesible a cualquiera.

[Donald Hartley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Indispensable work for anyone interested in ancient wine.