Bronze and Iron Age cultures in the Middle East were committed to wine production
image:
Scanning electron microscopic (SEM)-image of transverse section of an olive charcoal sample dating to around 1900 BC from Tell Mozan (NE Syria).
view moreCredit: Dr Katleen Deckers
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Farmers in the Middle East were more committed to wine production over olive growing during times of climatic change in the Bronze and Iron Ages, according to new research.
Archaeologists who analysed the charred remains of ancient plant samples found that irrigation was used to maintain grape cultivation as people prioritised viticulture.
Their findings provide evidence of the importance of wine production for cultural and economic purposes during that period.
The research, led by the University of Tübingen, Germany, and involving Durham University, UK, is published in the journal PLOS One.
The team looked at over 1,500 seed and wood samples from grape and olive plants from the Early Bronze Age to the Iron Age (5,000 to 2,600 years before today).
The samples came from the Levant region and northern Mesopotamia, which today includes Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, and northern Iraq.
The researchers analysed the ratios of stable carbon isotopes – non-radioactive forms of carbon that do not decay over time – in the samples to see how much water was available as the plants grew.
During the Early Bronze Age evidence of water stress matched seasonal variations in moisture.
During later periods there was greater variability in water stress, while the presence of grapes and olives in drier regions indicated more widespread use of irrigation.
The analysis also showed evidence for intensive irrigation of grape crops since the Middle Bronze Age, as well as the presence of cultivated grapes in areas poorly-suited to growing the fruit.
This suggests that grapes and wine were of particular cultural and economic value, confirming the findings of previous archaeological research.
Research senior author Professor Dan Lawrence, in the Department of Archaeology, Durham University, said: “Olive and grape were key crops, providing both food for locals and exportable commodities which facilitated trade between the Levant and Mesopotamia, and beyond with Egypt, Turkey and the wider Mediterranean.
“Our research demonstrates that farmers in the Middle East thousands of years ago were making decisions about which crops to plant and how to manage them, balancing the risk of harvest failure with the effort needed to irrigate, and the likely demand for their products.
“It reminds us that people in the past were just as smart as people today, and that seemingly modern issues like resilience to climate change and the need to allocate resources carefully have long histories.”
As well as Durham University’s Department of Archaeology, the research involved Durham’s Department of Earth Sciences, alongside the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment and the Institute for Archaeological Sciences, at the University of Tübingen.
The research was funded by the European Research Council through the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, the German Research Foundation and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.
ENDS
Olive trees in Central Lebanon, showing the types of wood and olive fruits used in the study.
Olive trees in Central Lebanon, showing the types of wood and olive fruits used in the study.
A bunch of grapes sitting on top of a metal table.
Credit
Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash.
Journal
PLOS One
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Fluctuations of viti- and oleiculture traditions in the Bronze and Iron Age Levant
Article Publication Date
17-Sep-2025
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough
by Omar Khayyam
English version by Edward FitzGerald
Original Language Persian/Farsi
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse -- and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness --
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.
 | -- from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, by Omar Khayyam / Translated by Edward FitzGerald |
<<Previous Poem | More Poems by Omar Khayyam | Next Poem >>
/ Image by kochtopf /
View All Poems by Omar Khayyam
This is the classic verse most people think of when you mention The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. FitzGerald's popular alternate rendition still hovers in the air: "A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and Thou..."
These lines can be read on so many different levels. At first glance, Khayyam seems to be giving us a picture of a garden dalliance -- bread, wine, love poetry, and an enticing, unnamed "Thou." A lovers' tryst in the wilderness.
But Khayyam's quatrains should never be taken at face value. In his day, Khayyam was best known as an astronomer and mathematician. But he was also a Sufi, so tradition says. And the Sufi poets, we know, loved to turn the meanings of things inside-out.
Rereading these lines through the Sufi lens, these seemingly earthy images are transformed into the most sublime truths.
Khayyam's mysterious beloved is can be understood as God. This tryst becomes the sacred meeting of soul with the Eternal.
And what about the bread and wine, the book and the wilderness?
Bread is, in many cultures, the fundamental food, the symbol of all food. And food is communion. Think of it this way: The food we eat is the most tangible exchange we make with our environment. Our food is what most immediately connects us with the reality we inhabit. When you take in food, you temporarily negate the illusion of separation between your body and the rest of existence. Food is a breach of the boundary where we normally perceive separation to begin.
So it is quite literally true: food is communion. Eating is an affirmation of interconnection and unity with our environment. What we take in becomes, in a truly visceral way, part of us. And we increasingly become composed of it. Remember the common saying, You are what you eat.
And the wine is the blissful drink of selflessness and divine ecstasy. The book of verse could be a reference to the Quran or, more broadly, any sacred writings -- or perhaps the profound recognition of how all of creation is written with subtle, poetic meaning.
And the wilderness? Our meeting place? Well, that is the heart, the space of awareness at one's core. It is "wild" because it is undefined by concepts and mental labels. The wilderness of the heart is expansive, with reaching tendrils that climb over stone walls until everything is lost in its rich verdure.
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough...
Let's join with Khayyam and sing of our secret love affair with the Divine. Eating our fill of the bread of union, drinking the wine of bliss, we come into the presence the Beloved.
