🍷 Gadachrili Gora
An ancient settlement in Georgia where pottery shards held wine about 8,000 years old.
Gadachrili Gora is an ancient settlement in Georgia, in the Kvemo Kartli region near the town of Marneuli. It is a mound where traces of Neolithic life were found. In fragments of clay pottery, scientists found residues of wine about 8,000 years old, from around 6000 BC. These are the oldest known traces of grape wine.
The study was published in 2017 in the journal PNAS by a group of scientists led by Patrick McGovern. They analysed residues on the walls of large vessels and found tartaric acid and other compounds typical of grapes. Grape pollen and seeds were found nearby, so the vine was already being cultivated. The vessels were large and were probably used for keeping and making wine.
The settlement belongs to the Shulaveri-Shomu culture, one of the oldest farming cultures of the Caucasus. The find confirms that winemaking in Georgia goes back thousands of years. For comparison, the oldest known winery was found in the Areni-1 cave in Armenia and dates to about 4100 BC.
How it connects to Wine
🍷 Gadachrili Gora → kind of → 🍷 Shulaveri–Shomu culture ← then ← 🍷 Ancient Georgian wine (c. 6000 BCE) ← then ← 🍷 History of wine → kind of → 🍷 Wine
Links
- Part of
- 🍷 Shulaveri–Shomu culture
Frequently asked questions
What is Gadachrili Gora?
An ancient settlement in Georgia where traces of wine about 8,000 years old were found.
How was it shown to be wine?
Tartaric acid and other grape signs were found in residues on vessel walls.
Which culture does the settlement belong to?
The Shulaveri-Shomu culture.