| Description |
xvi, 365 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
1. Stone Age Wine -- 2. The Noah Hypothesis -- 3. The Archaeological and Chemical Hunt for the Earliest Wine -- 4. Neolithic Wine! -- 5. Wine of the Earliest Pharaohs -- 6. Wine of Egypt's Golden Age -- 7. Wine of the World's First Cities -- 8. Wine and the Great Empires of the Ancient Near East -- 9. The Holy Land's Bounty -- 10. Lands of Dionysos: Greece and Western Anatolia -- 11. A Beverage for King Midas and at the Limits of the Civilized World -- 12. Molecular Archaeology, Wine, and a View to the Future |
| Summary |
"Patrick McGovern takes us on a personal odyssey back to the beginnings of this consequential beverage when early hominids probably enjoyed a wild grape wine. We follow the course of human ingenuity in domesticating the Eurasian vine and learning how to make and preserve wine some 7,000 years ago. Early winemakers must have marveled at the seemingly miraculous process of fermentation. From success to success, viniculture stretched out its tentacles and entwined itself with one culture after another (whether Egyptian, Iranian, Israelite, or Greek) and laid the foundation for civilization itself. As medicine, social lubricant, mind-altering substance, and highly valued commodity, wine became the focus of religious cults, pharmacopoeias, cuisines, economies, and society. As an evocative symbol of blood, it was used in temple ceremonies and occupies the heart of the Eucharist |
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Kings celebrated their victories with wine and made certain that they had plenty for the afterlife. (Among the colorful examples in the book is McGovern's famous chemical reconstruction of the funerary feast - and mixed beverage - of "King Midas.") Some people truly became "wine cultures.""--BOOK JACKET |
| Notes |
Formerly CIP. Uk |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [317]-328) and index |
| Subject |
Wine and wine making -- Middle East -- History.
|
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Viticulture -- Middle East -- History.
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| LC no. |
2002042714 |
| ISBN |
0691070806 acid-free paper |
|
9780691127842 |
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