Phoenicians and wine

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Through their extensive maritime trade network, the Phoenicians played a significant role in spreading viticulture and winemaking throughout the Mediterranean basin.

The culture of the ancient

wine grapes.[2]

They either introduced or encouraged the dissemination of wine knowledge to several regions that today continue to produce wine suitable for international consumption. These include modern-day

Portugal.[1]

The Phoenicians and their

Romans that would later spread viticulture across Europe.[1] The agricultural treatises of the Carthaginian writer Mago were among the most important early texts in the history of wine to record ancient knowledge of winemaking and viticulture. While no original copies of Mago's or other Phoenician wine writers' works have survived, there is evidence from quotations of Greek and Roman writers such as Columella
that the Phoenicians were skilled winemakers and viticulturists.

They were capable of planning vineyards according to favorable

straw wines made from dried grapes to an early example of the modern Greek wine retsina, made with pine resin as an ingredient. The Phoenicians also spread the use of amphorae (often known as the "Canaanite jar") for the transport and storage of wine.[2][3]

Early history in wine trading

The Phoenicians transported wine across the Mediterranean in amphorae, vessels once also known as the "Canaanite jar."

Historians think it was shortly after the discovery of

fermented grape juice, that cultures realized its value as a trade commodity. Although wild grapes of the genus Vitis could be found throughout the known world and all could be fermented, it took some degree of knowledge and skill to turn these grapes into palatable wine. This knowledge was passed along the trading routes that emerged from the Caucasus and Zagros Mountains down through Mesopotamia and to the Mediterranean, eventually reaching Phoenicia. Specific varieties of grapevines of the V. vinifera species were identified as especially favorable for winemaking, cuttings of which were spread via these trade routes.[2]

In addition to being a valuable trade commodity for personal consumption, wine also began to take on religious and cultural significance. Wine, or chemer as the Phoenicians called it, was associated with various Levantine deities—most notably El.[citation needed] Wine was considered an acceptable offering to both gods and kings, increasing its trade value in the ancient world. Around 1000 BC, the Mediterranean wine trade exploded, making the Phoenicians and their extensive maritime trade network prime beneficiaries of the increased demand. The Phoenicians not only traded in wine produced in Canaan but also developed markets for wine produced in colonies and port cities around the Mediterranean Sea.[2]

Expansion and colonization

Lebanon Map: Vitis vinifera evidence from ancient Rome shows wine was cultivated and then domesticated in Lebanon, at least two thousand years before Alexander the Great

From their principal settlements in cities like Byblos, Tyre and Sidon, the Phoenicians began to expand their trade influence to their neighbors and among the first to bring wine to Egypt. From there they expanded from beyond mere trading to establishing colonies of trading cities throughout the Mediterranean. They continued along the southern shores to found Carthage in 814 BC in northern Africa, and from there to the Balearic Islands and the Iberian Peninsula. The Phoenicians were the founders of Málaga and Cádiz in present-day Spain sometime in the 9th century, though a small outpost may have been established even earlier.[1][4]

The Phoenicians traveled the peninsula's interior, establishing trading routes along the Tagus, Douro, Baetis (Guadalquivir) and Iberus (Ebro) rivers. While it is clear that the Phoenician colonies along the coast had planted vineyards, and the Phoenicians likely traded wine with the tribes along the rivers inland, it is not yet certain how far they took winemaking inland.[1] In Portugal, however, the Phoenicians were known to trade amphorae of wine for local silver and tin.[5]

A recent discovery in the modern-day winemaking region of Valdepeñas in the south central part of what is now Spain, suggests that the Phoenicians brought viticulture further inland. Excavation in Valdepeñas has revealed the remnants of the ancient Iberian town of Cerro de las Cabezas, founded sometime in the 7th century BC. Among the remnants were several examples of Phoenician ceramics, pottery and artifacts, including winemaking equipment.[citation needed]

Ampelographers theorize that the Vitis vinifera pontica vine spread by the Phoenicians across the Mediterranean was an ancestor vine to many of the world's most widely planted white grape varieties.

Beyond the Phoenicians' own expansion and colonization, the civilization did much to influence the Greek and Roman civilizations to pursue their own campaigns of expansion. Dealing directly with the Greeks, the Phoenicians taught them not only their knowledge of winemaking and viticulture but also shipbuilding technologies that encouraged the Greeks to expand beyond the

byword denoting wine of high quality.[1]

Spread of grapevines

The most enduring legacy of Phoenicia's era of expansion was the propagation and spread of ancestral grapevines that

Catalonia, around 500 BC.[6]

Carthage

Carthage, in modern-day

Bagradas river valley was particularly popular.[3]

The city of Carthage also served as a center of knowledge, exemplified by the work of the Punic writer

Roman senate issued a decree requesting its translation into Latin. It was among the few works saved from the Carthaginian library when the Romans destroyed the city in 146 BC.[3]

Today there are no surviving remnants of Mago's work or its Latin translation. What is known is documented through quotations of his books by Greek and Roman authors, most notably the Roman Columella.[3]

Archeological finds

Tell el-Burak

Main article: Tell el-Burak

In September 2020, a team of Lebanese and

assemblage consisting mostly of Vitis vinifera seeds.[7]

The Marsala shipwreck

The

Marsala Ship is the earliest warship known from archeological evidence.[8] It is a wreck discovered in 1971 in an area called Punta Scario in the harbor of Marsala in western Sicily, Italy, near the Aegadian Islands.[9] The Marsala Ship's "nationality" was painted on the sides with letters by its Punic builders from Carthage.[10] The warship carried small cups and bowls for individual servings and wine amphorae of miscellaneous shapes. The remains of marijuana stems — which may have been chewed by the oarsmen — were also found in the wreck.[11]

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-671-68702-6
    .
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-06-093737-8
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-19-860990-6
    .
  4. ISBN 9780521795432
    .
  5. ^ Infovini "History of vine growing" History of Portugal Accessed: December 17th, 2009
  6. ^ "Mourvedre". Integrated Viticulture Online Database. University of California-Davis. Archived from the original on June 14, 2010. Retrieved December 17, 2009.
  7. ^
    ISSN 0003-598X
    .
  8. ^ Frost, 1972, p. 116: “... The most recent campaign off this area of the Isola Lunga has just closed (September 1971). [...] a Punic ship of such unique importance has been found that all other work was discontinued in its favour.” Anzovin, p. 275 item 4240 The first warship known from archeological evidence is the Marsala Ship, a wreck discovered in 1969 [sic] in the harbor [sic] of Marsala in western Sicily, Italy.
  9. ^ "The Marsala Punic Warship by Honor Frost". Archived from the original on 2008-09-14. Retrieved 2008-09-07.
  10. ^ "Saudi Aramco World magazine article -The Punic Warship". Retrieved 2008-09-07.
  11. ^ "The Marsala Punic Warship by Honor Frost". Archived from the original on 2008-09-14. Retrieved 2008-09-07.
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