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Scientists
are constantly searching for the clue that will define the
origin of man and each new discovery brings another piece
of that puzzle. Patrick McGovern of the University of
Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology
recently found evidence that the first bottles of wine may
have been produced as far back as the Neolithic
period—about 6,000 years ago.
McGovern is the author of the book "Ancient Wine: The
Search for the Origins of Viniculture" and is a
leader in the field of biochemical archeology. He has a
unique blend of talents that combine the techniques and
methods of chemistry and archeology with his seemingly
insatiable desire to explore the origins of wine.
"Fermented beverages have been preferred over water
throughout the ages," said McGovern on the University
of Pennsylvania, MAA Web site. "Some have even said
alcohol was the primary agent for the development of
Western civilization."
One of the important reasons in looking for links to
wine-making in archeological exploration is that the
beverages and food that humans consumed say a lot about
the culture of the time and can lead to a better
understanding of who we are today.
Scientists believe that the original inspiration for wine
came from humans observing birds eating berries that had
been naturally fermented. Once the idea caught on,
however, other reasons for maintaining production became
important. Wine can become a symbol of status or prestige.
It can be used as an icebreaker and a way to smooth
awkward social situations or to grease relationships with
neighboring communities and improve trade. It can also
become important in religion and the local economy.
The discovery that Stone Age humans were interested in
growing fruit and developing fermentation processes
provides many clues into the lifestyle of early Homo
sapiens. The production of wine requires a relatively
"stable base of operations," McGovern stated.
His research suggests that these early Near East and
Egyptian communities would have been more permanent
cultures with a stable food supply and domesticated
animals and plants. With this abundance of food came the
need for containers that were durable and made from a
material that was easily pliable—like clay. The porous
structure of these clay vessels is what has made it
possible for scientists to analyze wine that is thousands
of years old.
Clay jars designed to hold about 2.5 gallons were found
during an excavation conducted by Mary M. Voigt near the
Hajji Firuz Tepe site in the Northern Zagros Mountains of
Iran. A yellowish residue discovered inside a jar was
tested using a variety of analyses including infrared,
liquid chromatographic and wet chemical analyses. The
chromatographic test showed the best proof that this was
indeed wine by revealing the presence of terebinth tree
resin.
"In an upland region like Hajji Firuz," McGovern
explained, "the wild grapevine and the terebinth tree
grew together and produced their fruit and resin about the
same time of year."
The tree resin was added to the wine during fermentation
to help prevent it from turning to vinegar. The
combination of finding these two components in the jar
together and the discovery of clay stoppers, which are the
perfect size to fit the necks of the vessels, in close
vicinity to the jars, all points to the probability that
the grape product inside the jars was indeed wine.
In July 2004, McGovern told William Cocke of National
Geographic News that he will continue his search for
physical evidence of what he called "Stone Age
Beaujolais nouveau," (which means either Stone Age
wine ritual or new wine) by traveling to Turkey, where he
hopes to find the origins of grape domestication.
"We're looking in eastern Turkey, because that's
where other plants were domesticated," McGovern said.
He hopes to discover the very heart of historic wine
production from which viniculture flowed out into the rest
of world, giving birth to new civilizations.
Top
of Page
Source: The
Rebel Yell, University of Nevada
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By:
Guive Mirfendereski
30th
November 2005
The
late archeologist and Iranist Roman Ghirshman believed
that the Saka who stormed the Median Kingdom in the 7th
century BC were settled in an area south of Lake Urumia in
a place presently known as Sakkiz, which Ghirshman
identified as their capital and in which name “we may
recognize the name of the Scythians, or Saka as they
called themselves.” This nomenclature was due, according
to Ghirshman, because “the name of a people was often
given to its capital.”
Ghirshman
believed also that Sakkiz was one of the few villages of
Kurdistan that had preserved its name from the time of the
arrival of the Saka. Whether that was indeed the case, I
cannot say with certainty. Naturally, say “sakkiz,”
“saqqiz” or “saghiz” and an Iranian’s ears perk
up because the sound conjures up gum, such as chewing gum,
and also reminds one of a kind of wood. But
etymologically, from a present-day perspective, who could
argue with Sakkiz meaning the land of Saka, in which
“kiz” referred to the quality of the land that gave
rise to them. According to Dehkhoda (vol. 21, pp.
1003-1004) the word “kiz” was already in existence in
the 10th century as a noun and place-name suffix. But in
antiquity?
Whether
Sakkiz was named such and kept its name from its Saka days
are matters of conjecture. It is likely that the name
originated with the Saka, but changed and then resurfaced
at a later date for a reason altogether different. In the
geographical work of the Greek historian Strabo (d. after
23 AD) no mention is made of Sakkiz per se, but reference
is made (16.1.18) to a small country named Sagapeni, which
was bound in the north by Media and Armenia, in the west
by Adiabene and Mesopotamia and in the northwest by
Babylon. The name [Sagapeni/Sakapeni] and the description
of its geographical situation approximated the location of
present-day Sakkiz.
Unlike
Sakkiz, Sakastana is the most clearly identifiable of Saka
place-names. This designation arose from the fact of
Saka’s migration in large numbers into the greater
Sistan region. By the time of the Greek itinerant Idirous
of Charax Spasini (about late 1st century AD) the place
was already called Sakastan, a toponym that would persist
as long as the Saka enjoyed regional prominence. With the
passing of Sakastan to Sasanian rule about 224 AD, the
place-name changed to Sagastan. When the Sasanian ruler
Bahram II (Varahran: ruled 276-293 AD) re-conquered the
region, he appointed his son, the future Bahram III (ruled
293 AD) as governor and bestowed on him the title of
Saganshah (king of the Saga/Saka]. Subsequently, the Arab
conquest of Sagastan in 643-44 AD and re-conquest in
650-51 paved the way for the name change to Sajistan,
Seijistan, Seistan and Sistan.
There
is an anecdotal connection between Sakkiz and Sakastan and
it comes from the meaning of the word “sakkiz” in
Persian, terebinth. This small tree native to Northern
Africa, Southern Europe and Western Asia is a source of
turpentine and also is considered a common object of
veneration. In Iran, it is most prominently obtained in
the forests of Kordestan, particularly in Pusht Kuh, a
mountainous region east of Kermanshah in Lor country. The
etymological assumption has been that the word is of
Turkic origin (see Dehkhoda, 29:545). This in turn raises
the intriguing connection of the plant to Central Asia,
the cradle of Turkic languages, and by this association
with the Saka and Sakastan (Sistan), who were however
geographically from Central Asia but linguistically
Iranian-speaking.
In
the English translation of Joseph Ferrier’s “Caravan
Journeys and Wanderings in Persia, Afghanistan, Turkistan,
and Baloochistan,” one reads of one Kazi Mohammad Hassan,
a 19th century magistrate of Heart, why Sistan is called
by that name. The name, Kazi Mohammad said, derived from
the “word ‘saghis,’ the name of a wood much used in
Persia for burning at this time.” The wood, Ferrier
added, was found frequently in the steppes of Central Asia
and grew “in much greater quantities near the Helmund
and it is this that has given to the country in which it
grows so abundantly the appellation Saghistan, the place
of saghis.”
In
an amusing comment, the English editor of Ferrier’s
work, H.D. Seymour, expounded: “The Kazi had not heard
of the Sakae and their migrations [into Drangiana=Sistan].”
Neither Seymour nor the Kazi would have known for sure
about the Saka’s presence in Sakkiz, because the
discovery by Ghirshman that made the connection did not
come around until the 1950s. Yet, somehow I get the
feeling that the Kazi knew more than believed.
The
preponderance of the Saka in Sakastan, naturally, would
explain the origin and meaning of the place-name Sakavand
(variation: Sagavand). In the 10th century Sistan,
Sagavand referred to a town at the foot of a mountain of
the same name, with a fortified wall and much agriculture.
On the other hand, Abulfeda (d. 1331) wrote the name as
Sakavand and placed it in the Bamiyan region of Zabolestan.
Further Similarly, the place-name Sokavand referred to a
fort and village near Ghazneh in the eastern part of
present-day Afghanistan.
The
connection between the Saka and the place-names Sakiz and
Sakastan at two opposite ends of Iran suggests the
likelihood of the existence of other Saka place names in
the areas where the Saka are known to have inhabited. In
the southeast Caspian region, the evidence of a Saka
place-name appears in the name Asaak (variation: Asaac,
Arsace, Arsacia), which was the early Parthian capital
built by Arsaces in about 250 BC. The Orientalist W.
Schoff, among others, identified the town as the
present-day Quchan, located in the upper Atrak River
valley eighty miles northwest of Mashad. The topography of
Quchan is highly mountainous, with the nearby Hezarmasjid,
Aladagh, and Shahjahan elevations ensuring wintry
conditions that last for six months.
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