Following a meaty year for wine archaeology, 2024 is already off to a great start! Two researchers recently announced the discovery of an ancient wine store in Greece.
In January, associate professor Scott Gallimore of Wilfrid Laurier University and associate professor Martin Wells of Austin College premiered their presentation, “A Late Roman Wine Shop at Sikyon, Greece,” in Chicago at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, revealing the discovery of what could be a 1,600-year-old wine store in Greece.
Though not much to look at today, the store may have offered wine to locals living under the rule of the wine-friendly Roman Empire in the now-ruined city Sikyon in Greece's Peloponnese region. “The significance of this discovery is in the fact that we have several aspects of the process of wine production all together in one spot,” Wells told Wine Spectator via email. “It is rare to find them all grouped together and in such good condition.”
Why do Gallimore and Wells think the structure was a wine store? For one, archaeologists recovered 13 complete or near-complete amphorae here, including one with a spigot and two with sawn-off tops. “All features which point to pouring out, not filling up,” said Wells. “Additionally, we found three funnels for decanting.”
There were also remains of stoppers, pitchers, glass drinking vessels, marble tabletops, jewelry, African red slip dishes, a stewpot and what might be an iron and wood padlock linked to a chain (a useful tool even for today’s wine retailers). Digs also uncovered 60 coins. “A common find when excavating ancient shops,” said Wells. Most bear the face of fourth-century Roman emperor Constantius II.
The shop may have been front-of-house for a local wine industry, not unlike a modern tasting room. It’s attached to an ancient industrial complex with pressing floors—likely for grapes and olives—cisterns, six pottery kilns and a furnace. Archaeologists also found Vitis vinifera seeds, though there’s no telling what variety they’re from. (The pips will be chemically analyzed along with residue from the amphorae).
What More Could We Discover About This Ruin?
“[This discovery] opens a cool little window onto the daily life of ancient Sikyon,” Wells observed. “We can imagine the interactions inside, locals tasting the latest vintage, sharing a snack of cheese or fruit cut on the reused marble tabletops, and paying for their wine to take away. It’s so familiar.”
Why was the store deserted? Gallimore and Wells think the abandonment was sudden, given how the coins were scattered across the floor. Artefacts indicate the shop closed between the late 4th and early 5th centuries; archaeologists have found similar “destruction deposits” dating to the 5th century in Corinthia (also part of Peloponnese). Per this new research, it’s possible the owners abandoned the store during the Early Byzantine Tectonic Paroxysm, a period of increased seismic activity. It’s tougher to say if it collapsed with the rest of the industrial complex or on its own, but it looks like the walls collapsed first (bringing the store shelves with them) and then the roof.
However the shop met its end, this rare discovery enhances our understanding of wine history in this region. As Wells explained, “The Sikyon shop and industrial complex show how what can appear to be a huge, Mediterranean-wide industry—and the wine trade in the late Roman Empire certainly was—still also operated on a very local level.”
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