[Ansteorra] "Period Containers"
Stefan li Rous
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Fri Mar 28 16:56:16 PDT 2008
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
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at: http://www.florilegium.org ****
More information about the Ansteorra
mailing list