c. 1200–800 BCE · Mediterranean
Phoenician trade spreads the vine
Phoenician traders carried vines and winemaking across the Mediterranean, seeding much of what became European viticulture.
What happened
Phoenician commercial networks spread viticulture west from the Levant to North Africa, Sicily, Iberia and southern France.
They also spread the amphora as a transport vessel, which is why so much of what we know about ancient wine trade comes from shipwrecked pottery.
Carthage became a significant wine-producing centre, and the Carthaginian agricultural writer Mago produced a treatise on viticulture influential enough that the Roman Senate ordered it translated.
How firmly this is dated
Inferred. Established by archaeological or scientific inference, which produces a dating range rather than a date.
Shipwreck amphorae, settlement archaeology and later Roman references to Carthaginian agricultural writing. Routes are well attested; attributing specific regional traditions to Phoenician introduction is inference.
What this follows from, and leads to
A timeline is a list; these are the links between its entries.
c. 800–300 BCE
Wine in ancient Greece
Greece developed wine as a cultural institution, with named regional wines and an elaborate drinking culture.
c. 200 BCE – 400 CE
Roman wine culture and expansion
Rome industrialised wine production and planted the vineyards that became the great European regions.
c. 3000 BCE
Wine in ancient Egypt
Egyptian tombs record viticulture, winemaking and something close to a labelling system.
Sources
Sources consulted
- Archaeological research on the origins of viticulture and fermented beverages — University of Pennsylvania Museum / peer-reviewed archaeological literature