Sealed and filled jar of wine recovered with burials of dead Roman in tomb

Archaeologists made an unexpected discovery when they unearthed a jar of wine - which was filled with the drink and tightly sealed - in an ancient tombnearly 2,000 years after it was buried.

The wine was recovered among the grave goods which were accompanying a Roman man in his burial. The Romans had filled his cremated remains in a glass container before sealing it.

The wine, which was once sweet, has now a reddish colour and is filled with human dust.

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With the reddish stain and human dust, this wine is now the oldest known vintage of the world, going beyond the 4th century CESpeyer wine bottleby hundreds of years.

Archaeologist Juan Manuel Román of Carmona's Museum of the City said, "We were very surprised that liquid was preserved in one of the funerary urns."

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The mausoleum appears to be a collective tomb which belonged to a specific family and appears as a rarity.

Archaeologists in 2019 stumbled upon the chamber in southern Spain which was till then sealed and its contents were preserved for thousands of years.

The archaeologists found various luxurious grave goods – patchouli perfume, jewels and jewellery, fabrics, glass objects, and a large lead container.

However, after opening the container, the researchers were left shocked when they discovered a sealed glass urn which was half-filled with some sort of liquid.

In ancient Roman times, it was a known funerary practice to pour wine on the cremated remains. However, there is also little chance that the liquid entered into the urn by mistake.

How do scientists analyse the wine?

Headed by the University of Cordoba's chemist Daniel Cosano in Spain, the researchers held a comprehensive series of chemical analyses to determine what the liquid actually was.

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The pH of the liquid and organic matter within was measured. They used inductivelycoupled plasma mass spectrometry and identified the chemical elements present in the mineral salts in the liquid.

The high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry was used for identifyingpolyphenols, chemical compounds which can be found in food and drinks.

(With inputs from agencies)