Grape seed from Bronze Age sheds new light on Prehistoric routes

The discovery of the grape seed at Rødbyhavn on Lolland, Denmark, dating back 1750 years to the Bronze Age, sheds news light on Prehistoric contacts of Scandinavia and wine growing regions.

The discovered grape seed (by National Museum of Denmark)

Previous oldest grape seed from Denmark was found in sediments dating back to the Viking age. As there are no records of Prehistoric vineyards in Denmark it is believed that the sample must have travelled from southern regions of Europe. The seed was discovered in a soil sample from the sediment layers in a well, by a botanist analysing the samples. It is believed that the site, where the discovery was made, was connected with a nearby megalithic tomb, where around 100 cooking stone pits were found. This suggests that the studied site was occasionally used to make food for large groups of people in Late Bronze Age. According to the researchers, the grape seed adds to many evidence showing great mobility of both people and goods in the Bronze Age.

Measurements of the well where the seed was found (by Steen Knudsen & Museum Lolland-Falster)

(after Science Nordic, National Museum of Denmark, Steen Knudsen & Museum Lolland-Falster)

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