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A research team has discovered a wine press from the Iron Age in the area of today's Lebanon. This was announced by the University of Tübingen. This was proof that wine was already being produced on the eastern Mediterranean coast in the 1st millennium BC. According to the university, no plants for wine production in this region were known until now.
The wine press from the 7th century BC was found during excavations in the Phoenician Tell el-Burak. At the site, which has been undergoing archaeological research as a Lebanese-German joint project since 2001, the remains of a small Phoenician settlement from the late 8th to the middle of the 4th century BC have been uncovered.
The structure of the press and the building materials used were examined in detail by Dr. Adriano Orsingher and Professor Jens Kamlah from the Biblical Archaeological Institute and Dr. Silvia Amicone and Dr. Christoph Berthold from the Competence Center Archaeometry - Baden-Württemberg (CCA-BW) at the University of Tübingen together with Professor Hélène Sader from the American University in Beirut. They found out that the Phoenicians used a plaster mixed from lime and ground recycled clay shards when building the wine press.
"Producing a good quality lime plaster was costly," explains Orsingher. "The Phoenicians developed the technique by using recycled ceramic shards. This made it possible to build better and at the same time more stable." In southern Phoenicia, a local and innovative tradition of plaster production had developed. "The plaster was water resistant and durable. The Romans adopted this technology for building construction," Orsingher continues.
The settlement of Tell el-Burak was bordered to the southwest and southeast by a 2.5 metre wide terrace wall. "South of one of these walls we discovered a well preserved wine press. It had been built on the slope of the hill," the researcher reports. Earlier investigations in Tell el-Burak had shown that grapes had been cultivated on a large scale in the vicinity of the village. "We assume that wine was produced there on a large scale for several centuries. For the Phoenicians it was very important, they also used wine in religious ceremonies."
The earlier discovery of a large number of amphorae, often used as transport vessels, indicates that the Phoenicians also traded wine. "The city of Sidon was situated on sea trade routes of the eastern Mediterranean. Phoenicians played an important role in the spread of wine in the Mediterranean area, and their tradition of wine consumption was passed on to Europe and North Africa" So far there is little evidence of wine production in Phoenicia, Orsingher emphasises. "The new discovery provides numerous clues as to how the wine pioneers made the drink."