Bringing back the ancient Negev's wine

ARCHAEOBOTANICAL AMBITIONS: Ancient Negev Wine Was a Global Hit. Can Israeli Winemakers - and Scientists - Bring It Back? Once shipped from the desert to markets across the Mediterranean and beyond, the Negev's wines faded into history. Now, ancient grape seeds and surviving vines are helping researchers and vintner revive a lost tradition (Guy Bar-Oz, Joshua Schmidt and Gideon Avni).

Today, the Negev's past and present are coming together in an unusual way. A modern wine industry is seeking to establish an identity for Israeli desert wine, while archaeological, historical and genetic research allows us to reconstruct the region's ancient grape-growing and winemaking heritage. This convergence does more than illuminate history. It opens the way to rethinking heritage, agriculture, regional identity and sustainable development in the Negev.

To understand the depth of this connection, we need to go back some 1,500 years. During the Byzantine period, the Negev was one of the eastern Mediterranean's most important wine-producing regions. Historical sources praise the flavor of its wine, known as "Gaza wine" after the port from which it was shipped. Traces of that industry remain in the landscape: Winepresses, stone terraces and ancient fields still line the streambeds and slopes of the Negev Highlands.

Background here and links. Cross-file under Vintage Resurrection.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.