An ancient Roman tomb discovered during home renovations in southern Spain contains cremated bones and ashes that have been soaking for two millennia in white wine.
“This is the oldest wine discovered to date,” says José Ruiz Arrebola, a chemist at the University of Cordoba in Spain.
This wine, along with the associated findings, is revealing more about ancient Roman funerary rituals in Spain.
The wine was discovered in 2019 in Carmona, Spain, by a homeowner who was doing renovation work. He discovered a crack that led to a hollow space and reported it to the local archaeology board. Researchers discovered it was a Roman tomb dating to the first century A.D. — some of the goods discovered within confirmed the date. There were eight different niches in the tomb, six of them occupied by urns containing the remains of three men and three women.
“A key factor in the ...
