Researchers unearth 6,000-year-old Italian wine in SicilyAugust 28, 2017 - 14:22 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Researchers have discovered traces of wine in Sicily dating back to the fourth century BC - meaning Italians have been making and drinking wine for much longer than previously thought, The Local reports. A research team from the University of South Florida carried out tests on an ancient jar found in a cave in Sicily, and found it contained traces of 6,000-year-old wine, they announced last week. The finding, published in Microchemical Journal, is "significant as it’s the earliest discovery of wine residue in the entire prehistory of the Italian peninsula", the archaeologists said. In other words, the discovery has popped the cork on everything that we know about the history of wine in Italy. Previous recovery of seeds and samples had led to the belief that winemaking developed in Italy in the Middle Bronze Age, 1300-1100BC, or just over 3,000 years ago. But the ancient copper container unearthed – nearly intact – in a cave on Monto Kronio, on Sicily's southwest coast, opens up 3,000 years of winemaking history on the peninsula that were previously unchartered. The container is more than 6,000 years old, making it the oldest known Italian wine and one of the oldest pieces of evidence for winemaking in the world. The oldest known winemaking activity in the world was confirmed in Armenia, according to National Geographic, and was also approximately 6,000 years old. Some experts however have argued that the first winemaking in the world dates as far back as the Neolithic Age up to 10,000 years ago. Top stories David Vardanyan is the son of former Karabakh leader Ruben Vardanyan who who is currently imprisoned in Azerbaijan. The number of state universities will be reduced from 23 to 8 by 2030, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan has said. From September 21 to November 11, a total of 2,820 Russians registered at a place of residence in Armenia, the police has said. The situation on the contact line between Karabakh and Azerbaijan was relatively stable overnight, the Defense Army says. Partner news | Kazakhstan welcomes Yerevan, Baku’s agreement to meet in Almaty Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has welcomed the agreement of Baku and Yerevan to hold negotiations in Almaty. Armenia offers to temporarily host, preserve Gaza manuscripts The Armenian Foreign Minister has said Yerevan is ready to help preserve manuscripts from the conflict zone in Gaza. Aliyev says no need for mediators in Armenia-Azerbaijan process Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev believes that Baku and Yerevan do not mediators in the process of normalizing relations. U.S. believes peace is “possible” in South Caucasus The United States continues to believe that peace is possible in the South Caucasus, Vedant Patel said. |