The Puzzle Solved: King Tutankhamen's Wine was Red
Associated Press
Houston Chronicle, US
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London (UK):
King Tutankhamen was a red wine drinker, according to a researcher who analyzed traces of the vintage found in his tomb.Maria Rosa Guasch-Jané said Wednesday at the British Museum that she made her discovery after inventing a process that gave archaeologists a tool to discover the color of ancient wine.
"This is the first time someone has found an ancient red wine," she said.Wine bottles from King Tut's time were labeled with the name of the product, the year of harvest, the source and the vine grower, Guasch-Jané said, but did not include the color.
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See Also:
Was a glass of Egyptian red King Tut's real poison?
King Tut's favourite tipple was fine red wine
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Several clues led scientists to believe the wine may have been red: drawings from the time of grapes being pressed into wine were red and purple, for example. But the color of King Tut's wine was impossible to verify until Guasch-Jané invented a process to detect a color compound not found in white wine called syringic acid.
To test her method, Guasch-Jané scraped residue from wine jars owned by the British Museum and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Two of the jars came from King Tut's tomb, discovered by English archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922.Patrick McGovern, an American molecular archaeologist, said he has discovered grape residue in northern Iran that dates winemaking to 5400 B.C.
Scientists believe the first wine discovered in Egypt, buried in King Scorpion's tomb in about 3125 B.C., was produced in Jordan and transported 500 miles by donkey and boat to Egypt. Eventually, grapevines were planted in Egypt.
Oct 27, 2005
Associated PressHouston Chronicle, US
__________________
London (UK):
King Tutankhamen was a red wine drinker, according to a researcher who analyzed traces of the vintage found in his tomb.Maria Rosa Guasch-Jané said Wednesday at the British Museum that she made her discovery after inventing a process that gave archaeologists a tool to discover the color of ancient wine.
"This is the first time someone has found an ancient red wine," she said.Wine bottles from King Tut's time were labeled with the name of the product, the year of harvest, the source and the vine grower, Guasch-Jané said, but did not include the color.
______________________________
See Also:
Was a glass of Egyptian red King Tut's real poison?
King Tut's favourite tipple was fine red wine
______________________________
Several clues led scientists to believe the wine may have been red: drawings from the time of grapes being pressed into wine were red and purple, for example. But the color of King Tut's wine was impossible to verify until Guasch-Jané invented a process to detect a color compound not found in white wine called syringic acid.
To test her method, Guasch-Jané scraped residue from wine jars owned by the British Museum and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Two of the jars came from King Tut's tomb, discovered by English archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922.Patrick McGovern, an American molecular archaeologist, said he has discovered grape residue in northern Iran that dates winemaking to 5400 B.C.
Scientists believe the first wine discovered in Egypt, buried in King Scorpion's tomb in about 3125 B.C., was produced in Jordan and transported 500 miles by donkey and boat to Egypt. Eventually, grapevines were planted in Egypt.
Oct 27, 2005
