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Jilly_in_VA

(10,886 posts)
Mon Oct 11, 2021, 02:14 PM Oct 2021

Massive Byzantine-era winery discovered in Israel

Near a soccer pitch and a suburban neighborhood in central Israel, archaeologists say they discovered the world's largest known Byzantine-era winery.

The winery, dating back 1,500 years, is believed to have produced one of the finest white wines of the Mediterranean at the time. It was widely praised in Byzantine-era literature and known as vinum Gazetum or Gaza wine because it was exported from the ancient port city near modern-day Gaza.

Archeologists found a large complex of five winepresses, four large warehouses where the wine was aged, kilns where the clay wine jugs were fired, and tens of thousands of broken pieces of jugs.

They estimate the winery produced between two to three million liters of wine a year.

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/11/1045048469/massive-byzantine-era-winery-discovered-in-israel

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Massive Byzantine-era winery discovered in Israel (Original Post) Jilly_in_VA Oct 2021 OP
One wonders how anything of such a size and important product was ever left and buried. Karadeniz Oct 2021 #1
Maybe they went bankrupt Jilly_in_VA Oct 2021 #2

Karadeniz

(23,417 posts)
1. One wonders how anything of such a size and important product was ever left and buried.
Mon Oct 11, 2021, 03:32 PM
Oct 2021

Oh...Byzantine. Perhaps the Muslims let it go since they're not supposed to imbibe alcohol.

Jilly_in_VA

(10,886 posts)
2. Maybe they went bankrupt
Mon Oct 11, 2021, 03:54 PM
Oct 2021

Or who knows? Israel has the misfortune of "being in the way" of a lot of military powers on their way to somewhere else. The armies couldn't always be bothered with the locals so they overran them.

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