Scientists were left baffled after making a staggering yet gruesome discovery in what is believed to be the world’s oldest bottle of wine.
The discovery was made in in a Roman tomb in Spain in a 2,000-year-old glass urn that once held wine.
Tests revealed the wine was dated to the fourth century, making it one of the oldest vintages ever to be discovered after it was originally unearthed five years ago in Carmona, a city in Andalusia.
Now, the remains of a man’s cremated bones have been found inside the glass receptacle.
The glass was found in the Spanish city
WikiCommons/Juan Manuel Román et al., Journal of Archaeological Science Reports (2024)
Ashes were found inside the glass along with a gold ring with the discovery helping scientists shed more light on funerary rituals in the Spanish region during the Roman period.
Carmona’s municipal archaeologist Juan Manuel Román said: “At first we were very surprised that liquid was preserved in one of the urns.
“The urn’s ash content reflected Roman society’s gender divisions in funerary rituals.”
Researchers said that it was “no coincidence” that the skeletal remains were those of a man and not a woman. They explained that the ancient Romans prohibited women from drinking wine, which was considered to be a “man’s drink”.
A woman’s remains were found in another urn from the tomb, which had no traces of wine at all. The urn was found to contain three amber jewels, a bottle of perfume, with a patchouli scent, and the remains of silk fabrics.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
The burial chamber where the jar was found
Juan Manuel Román et al., Journal of Archaeological Science Reports (2024)
Closer to home, archaeologists have said Roman cobblestones, centuries-old skeletons and millennia-old windows are among the artefacts turfed up under Worcester Cathedral.
The team, which has been digging underneath the more than 1,300-year-old cathedral ahead of landscaping works on Monday, announced their findings earlier this month.
Alongside the aforementioned treasures, researchers have found the remnants of a long-lost Medieval bell tower – as well as the buried walls of a 12th-century crypt.
The cathedral’s archaeologist Fiona Keith-Lucas said her team had found “fantastic things” – while the cathedral’s website details how some of the discoveries provide “a rare glimpse” of Roman Worcester.
Some of the more recent finds like the skeletons, thought to date back to before the Victorian era, will require special care.
Researchers are set to pore over the centuries-old remains before the skeletons are “sensitively re-interred” in the cathedral’s charnel crypt, the cathedral says.