Israel’s archaeologists find huge wine-making facility dating back 1,500 years
The town of Yavne was a wine-making powerhouse during the Byzantine period.
Israeli archaeologists have unearthed a massive ancient winemaking complex dating back some 1,500 years.
The complex, discovered in the central town of Yavne, includes five wine presses, warehouses, kilns for producing clay storage vessels and tens of thousands of fragments and jars, they said.
Israel’s Antiquities Authority said the discovery shows that Yavne was a wine-making powerhouse during the Byzantine period.
Jon Seligman, one of the directors of the excavation, said the wine made in the area was known as Gaza wine and exported across the region.
The researchers believe the Yavne location was the main production facility for the label.
“This was a prestige wine, a light white wine, and it was taken to many, many countries around the Mediterranean,” he said, including Egypt, Turkey, Greece and possibly southern Italy.
“Beyond that, this was a major source of nutrition and this was a safe drink because the water was often contaminated, so they could drink wine safely,” he said.
The antiquities authority said the complex was uncovered over the past two years during excavations being conducted as part of the development of Yavne, a town located south of Tel Aviv.
