Article: ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER A RARE VINTAGE INDEED.(Main)

Byline: John Noble Wilford New York Times

Archaeologists have found chemical evidence that people were making and drinking wine more than 5,000 years ago, the earliest indication of wine in the world.

And a robust vintage it must have been, to have left a trace at all. The bouquet was long gone, of course. But there inside an earthen jar from Sumerian ruins excavated at Godin Tepe in western Iran were red- colored deposits, a residue that chemists determined was rich in tartaric acid and so almost certainly was the remainder of an ancient wine. Tartaric acid is found in nature almost exclusively in grapes.

"We're 95 percent sure," said Dr. ...

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