The vine was cultivated in Italy long before the arrival of the Greeks

2023-12-15 16:30:14
View of the interior of the Pertosa cave (Italy). JOSEPH CERESIA

Before occupying, thanks to wine, an essential place in ancient religion and commerce, viticulture had a difficult beginning. Various attempts at establishment, marked by attempts at association or hybridization with wild flora, would have accompanied the spread of this agricultural practice in the Western Mediterranean during the Bronze Age. A Franco-Italian-British team has just provided proof of this by combining genetic and morphometric methods.

Francesco Breglia, from the University of Padua, and his colleagues sequenced the DNA and analyzed the 3D shape of fifty-five grape seeds discovered at the archaeological site of the Pertosa Cave, near Naples (Italy). They assert, in Scientific Reportsnot only that the domestic vine began to be exploited in the Italian peninsula well before the installation of the first Greek colonies in the region (8th century BC), but that, the grape varieties used being close to those cultivated today in the Balkans, its use probably resulted from an introduction from the eastern part of the Mediterranean basin.

The origin of the vine is one of the great mysteries of the history of humanity. Based on genetic data, biologists have put forward the hypothesis of a double domestication occurring between Western Asia and the Caucasus, followed by a slow progression towards the west. “But tracing the stages of this diffusion proves difficult. There is no text. Archaeological material capable of providing evidence of wine-growing activity is almost non-existent. And to complicate everything: the domestic vine has been the subject of multiple hybridizations with the wild vine”explain Laurent BoubyCNRS research engineer at the Montpellier Institute of Sciences.

The myth of Dionysus

Hence the interest in archaeobotany. By analyzing the geometric shape and DNA of archaeological grape seeds and making comparisons with current samples, specialists in this discipline can distinguish wild vines from domestic vines and relate ancient grape varieties to contemporary varieties. At least when the remains are in good condition. Which is rare, old seeds are often found carbonized…

Presentation of water-filled grape seeds from the Pertosa cave (Italy). FRANCESCO BREGLIA /UNIVERSITY OF PADUA

This is not the case with those found waterlogged in the Pertosa cave. “Located in Campania, this site where the remains of dwellings on stilts and Mycenaean artifacts were discovered is crossed by a river near which we found the seeds, dated from the years 1450 to 1200 BC. BC, which we used for our study”, summarizes Girolamo Fiorentino, archaeobotanist at the University of Salento, in Lecce.

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