The aristocracy of ancient Jerusalem liked wine with notes of vanilla, new research indicates.
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Archaeologists form the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University examined jugs excavated in the City of David national park and discovered traced of the then-exotic spice vanilla.
"The discovery of the vanilla is a fantastic illustration of the luxury goods that arrived here – possibly from India and the surrounding area, due to its location on an international trade route," researchers said.
The jugs, some of which were marked on their handles with a rosette, the symbol of the economy of the Kingdom of Judea, and are believed to date back some 2,600 years to the rule of King Zedekiah, were found in fragments in storerooms of structures unearthed in two IAA digs conducted outside the walls of the Old City.
Both the structures were razed during the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. The jug pieces were buried under the rubble.
A new study, published last week in the journal Plos One, lists the chemical findings, which examined the trace amounts of molecules found on the sides of eight different jugs from the two buildings, which showed clearly that the vessels had been used to store wine.
However, researchers were surprised to find that the wine had been supplemented with vanilla, which until recently was believed to have been unknown in the region at the time.
Ayala Amir, a doctoral student in archaeology and ancient Middle Eastern cultures at TAU, said, "The wealth of molecular findings and the level at which they were preserved in the jugs are surprising. Such a clear and dominant presence of vanilla, together with other molecules that indicate the presence of vanilla, are an unusual discovery, especially in light of the fires that burned in the structures that housed the jugs.
"The results of an analysis of organic trace elements allow me to say that the jugs contained wine flavored with vanilla," Amir said.
The familiarity with and use of vanilla appears to have been connected to an international trade route that crossed the Negev Desert in the seventh century BCE, first under the Assyrians and then under the Egyptians and the Babylonians.
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