According to tradition, the bodies of adults were always cremated in Pompeii, the city destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 BC. However, the discovery by researchers from the University of Valencia of a magnificently preserved tomb with the partially mummified body of a man confused archaeologists and went around the world. His identity was Marcus Venerius Secundio, a public slave and guardian of the temple of Venus who, once freed, had achieved a certain social and economic status and who became an Augustal, that is, a member of the college of priests dedicated to the imperial cult.
But if the discovery itself was not enough, in that investigation more things were discovered. And it is that, in another tomb of the family pantheon, a container filled with a reddish liquid was found inside a glass urn. Everything indicates that it could be wine, but from the Valencian university they ask for caution, since it is still in the analysis phase.
Llorenç Alapont, a researcher at the center's Department of Prehistory, Archeology and Ancient History, calculates that "in about three weeks", approximately, the content can be verified, as he has told La Vanguardia. But, if the suspicions are confirmed, we would be facing the oldest wine found in a liquid state in the world, since it would date back more than 2,000 years.
To date, that merit is held by a glass bottle located in the German city of Speyer, although it must be said that it is not confirmed that its content is really wine. In any case, it would date from the year 325 AD so, if the new investigations are confirmed, it would continue to break the record.
At the moment the first laboratory tests, under the direction of Gianni Gallello, reveal that the liquid from Pompeii contains tannins, as reported by El Correo. However, it will be necessary to wait to be able to confirm something with one hundred percent security.
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