Winery unearthed in a Canaanite palace

The excavations at the Canaanite palace at tel Kabri revealed numerous rooms filled with jars under the collapsed walls and roof. The palace is dated back to Middle Bronze Age (around 1950-1550 BCE). This find is a continuation of around 40 almost-complete large jars that were found in one of the rooms during excavations two years ago. Chemical analysis proved that they were filled with wine with special flavourings, such as terebinth resin, cedar oil, honey, and other plant extracts.

Winery jars (by Science Daily)
Wine jars (by Science Daily)

The initial results of analysis of the recent finds showed that while all the jars in the first storeroom were filled with wine, in the other storerooms some of the jars contained wine, others appear to have been rinsed clean, while others still contained only resin, without wine. Some of the new storerooms were used for mixing wines with various flavourings and for storing empty jars for filling with the mixed wine. The palace did not just have storerooms for finished produce, but also had a winery where wine was prepared for consumption.

(after Science Daily)

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