Elective Course in Archaeology. Ancient wine adventure – history and archaeology of vine and wine 2900-HAMC-K1-ANVW
This course will present the history of vine and wine from Prehistory (the Neolithic period) to the early Byzantine times. It will concentrate on the origins of vine and wine in the Mediterranean and beyond as well as on social, cultural, religious and economic aspects of wine production, consumption and trading in different cultures.
List of subjects:
1. In search of lost wines - an interdisciplinary toolkit for a wine historian.
2. From Caucasus to the Mediterranean and back again - vine domestication in ancient world.
3. Bronze age or age of wine? Origins of wine making in the Mediterranean.
4. Wine in the land of pharaohs.
5. The clash of Gods - Dionysus vs. Bacchus.
6. Making wine in big clay jars - a practical guide.
7. Crimes, taboos and wine - law and religion.
8. Social, cultural and educational role of drinking together in ancient Greece.
9. Ancient wines in the Mediterranean - taste & trade.
10. Wine makers and wine dealers across the Mediterranean.
11. In vino sanitas - medical use of wines.
12. Wine goes barbarian: drunken Celts and Scythians.
13. Wine, Church and economy during Late Antiquity.
14. Byzantine barrels and beyond - changes in wine production at the end of antiquity.
15. Orange wines, raisin wines, madeira et al. - ancient traditions in modern world.
Type of course
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Description of expected learning outcomes for knowledge, skills and other competences
- Understanding of interdisciplinary methods in ancient studies.
- Critical assessment of various categories of evidence
- Knowledge of ancient wine making
- Knowledge of social, cultural and economic role of wine in the ancient world
Assessment criteria
- participation
- activity
- essay at the end of semester
No more than three absences are allowed during the semester, of which two need to be made up by additional assignments.
A person who is more than 10 minutes late will be considered as absent.
Bibliography
C. Cremonesi, D. Tomasi eds., L’avventura del vino nel Bacino del Mediterraneo: itinerari storici ed archeologici prima e dopo Roma (Simposio internazionale, Conegliano, 30 settembre–2
ottobre 1998), Conegliano 2000.
Dzierzbicka D., OINOS. Production and Import of Wine in Graeco-Roman Egypt. Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 2018
Komar, P. Eastern Wines on Western Tables Consumption, Trade and Economy in Ancient Italy. Leiden: Brill 2020.
Kourakou-Dragona, S. Vine and Wine in the Ancient Greek World. Athens: Foinikas Publications 2015.
McGovern, Patrick E. Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture. Princeton University Press, 2003.
Thurmond, D., From Vines to Wines in Classical Rome. A Handbook of Viticulture and Oenology in Rome and the Roman West. Leiden: Brill 2017.
Tchernia, A., Le vin de l’Italie Romain. Essai d'histoire économique d'après les amphores. Roma: EFR 1986.
Węcowski, M., The Rise of the Greek Aristocratic Banquet. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2014.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: