EGYWINE · Ancient Egypt’s Wine Rebirth
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2016-06-01 → 2018-05-31
- EU contribution
- €173,076
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Ancient Egypt’s Wine Rebirth
The Egyptian wine culture is one of the world’s most ancients, however, the extensive archaeological evidences have not been fully recorded or investigated. The present paradigm on wine history states that viticulture originated in the Near East and that Europe’s wine culture is a Greek and Roman heritage. In Ancient Egypt, wine was a luxury drink mainly served for the royal family and the noble people, offered to gods in religious rituals, used in medicine and in the Pharaoh’s resurrection ritual. From the Predynastic onwards, wine jars were placed in tombs as funerary offers and, from the Early Dynastic Period (c.3000 BC), the inscriptions on jars indicate the wine’s geographic origin. Our background research on the ancient Egyptian wines have permitted to identify three different types of wines that were produced and document 92 scenes of viticulture and winemaking in the Egyptian private tombs. EGYWINE addressed the viticulture origins, production and preservation of the ancient Egyptian wines, and the diffusion of the Egyptian wine culture legacy transmitted through the Mediterranean wine cultures to Europe. The objectives are: 1) Identify which material is linked with wine from the Predynastic Period (3800-3300 BC) to the New Kingdom Period (1550-1069 BC); 2) Study the main concentration of the Ancient Egyptian wine jars and wine inscriptions; 3) Analyse ancient wine residues from pharaonic Egypt through paleogenomics. The EGYWINE research project (2016-2018) studied how the Egyptian wines were made to understand the ancient elaboration methods, preservation of wines and modern production of amphora wine for the knowledge advancement and heritage conservation. This interdisciplinary approach aimed to obtain significant evidences to overcome theories on viticulture and wine production in Egypt interrelating various scientific disciplines (archaeology, paleogenomics, history, oenology and semantics) to reveal the Egyptian footprint on wine culture’s history. The results are being disseminated through the project’s webpage: http//:www.wineofancientegypt.com
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The present paradigm on wine history states that viticulture is originated in the Near East and that Europe’s wine culture is a Greek and Roman heritage. The Egyptian wine culture is one of the world’s most ancients, however, the extensive archaeological evidences have not been fully investigated.Based on Dr. Guasch’s previous research, EGYWINE will collect and document evidences (pottery and organic material) for the entire process of grape cultivation and wine production in Egypt interrelating various scientific disciplines (archaeology, paleogenomics, history and semantics).EGYWINE seeks to understand the Egyptian footprint on the wine culture history.Specifically, its aims are to:1) Identify what is linked with wine from the Predynastic (3800-3300 BC) to the New Kingdom Period (1550-1069 BC)2) Study the Ancient Egyptian wine jars3) Analyze ancient wine residues from pharaonic Egypt through paleogenomics, which offer multiple perspectives of study: (i) vine genome evolution since its initial domestication; (ii) fermentation yeasts evolution; (iii) wine making process evolution, through a metagenomic analysis of the multiple microorganisms used during, or along, the wine making process.EGYWINE project will be performed at Paris-Sorbonne UMR8167 (‘Orient et Méditerranée’) and a six-months secondment at MontpellierSupAgro-INRA (UMR1334 ‘Amélioration Génétique et Adaptation des Plantes’). The aDNA extraction will be performed at ‘Epigenome and paleogenome’ lab of the Institut Jacques Monod (UMR7592) in Paris and the typology wine jars study at the IFAO in Cairo. The research and training profile of these units fits all the objectives included into EGYWINE project (scientific research, training and personal career). The fellowship will strengthen the multidisciplinary research profile of Dr. Guasch, who will benefit from the excellent methodological expertise of Prof. Tallet, and Prof. Boursiquot, and additional training and support from IFAO and IJM partners.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- SORBONNE UNIVERSITE · ParisCoordinatorFrance
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/699858
- http://www.wineofancientegypt.com
- http://www.wineofancientegypt.com/the-project
Data: CORDIS, © European Union