Wine in Ancient Egypt: A cultural and analytical study

Wine is a beverage that belongs to the Mediterranean culture. A study of the origins of wine shows how deep vineyards are rooted in this area from West to East and since antiquity. The oldest and most extensive documentation about viticulture and winemaking comes from Egypt. Vineyards have been grown in the Nile Delta for five thousand years. The historical and archaeological study of documents and paintings related to winemaking coming from walls of Egyptian tombs, still presents nowadays unknown aspects. Thanks to the development of analytical techniques, we are now able to shed light on a new aspect known to us from the first Mediterranean civilization: the wine culture in Egypt. This present study has three objectives: To provide a bibliographical study of viticulture and oenology in ancient Egypt; to verify, in an analytical way, the presence of wine in amphorae of ancient Egypt; and to investigate what kinds of wine were produced in ancient Egypt.