Grape wine and vine domestication
Vino de uva y domesticación de la vid
- Date
- c. 6000 BCE · confidence high
- Place
- Gadachrili Gora and Shulaveris Gora, Kvemo Kartli, Georgia
- Credited to
- Shulaveri-Shomu culture of the southern Caucasus
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Tartaric acid and malvidin in large jars of the Shulaveri-Shomu culture, the oldest chemical evidence of grape wine; Hajji Firuz (Iran, c. 5400 BCE) confirms the tradition. Domesticated grapevine originates in the Caucasus and eastern Anatolia.
Georgia (6000 BCE), Iran (5400 BCE) and eastern Anatolia compete for the origin; the vine may have been domesticated in more than one place.
What it led to
- Viticulture as a prestige crop and an export economy
- Wine as an elite drink, a religious rite and a means of diplomatic exchange
- The technology of the buried large jar (kvevri) and resin-based preservation
Built on
Made possible
- Transport amphora (Canaanite jar)c. 1800 BCE
- Distillation of alcoholc. 1150
- Areni-1 winery (c. 4100 BC)
- Vinegar