[Ansteorra] "Period Containers"

[Stefan li Rous]

On Mar 28, 2008, at 6:17 PM, Eadric Anstapa wrote:
> Stefan li Rous wrote:
>> Other than for a few days storage, what evidence do you have for wine
>> being stored in ceramic jars or even jugs before 1600?
>
> Huh?  Amphora were used to hold, haul, and store everything including
> wines and were ceramic jars/jugs.  Used well into period and certainly
> way way way pre-period.
>
> Whole shipwrecks laden with Amphora that had been filled with wine  
> have
> been found.
>
> Go to the Aphoras project at
> http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/amphoras/cgi-bin/well?    and enter  wine
> as a search term and you'll get plenty of documentation references.
>
> -EA

Thank you. I was actually thinking of storage of wine at table and  
such that could be conveniently resealed. But it is a good point that  
amphora were used some past Classical times for transporting wine.  
That site seems to give 6th century as the latest, and even then only  
in the eastern Mediterranean. Not sure why the use of amphora seems  
to have dropped off in the beginning of medieval times, unless it has  
to do with the general demise of civilization and trade.

Unfortunately, storage of wine in amphora shares the same  
disadvantages as storing it in kegs. Once the keg is breached, and  
used, the increasing amount of air in the keg causes the wine to go  
bad. Apparently this was a problem even when the keg hadn't been  
opened because you see numerous mentions of celebrations when the  
'new' wine had arrived each year. So, no keeping wines for multiple  
years and keeping track of "vintages" and such for period wine.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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