4. LA TERRACOTTA :
I SIMBOLI ANCESTRALI
DEA MADRE DI CAPUA
(III ° SEC A.C.)
FIGURA DI DONNA
3.000 A.C,
VENERE DI FARSALO
NEOLITICO
TERRA MADRE
IX° SEC A.C.
5. LA GRANDE MADRE
• ARCHETIPO DAI MOLTI ASPETTI :
• IN SENSO LATO :LA TERRA,IL
MONDO SOTTERRANEO
• IN SENSO PIU’ STRETTO : I LUOGHI
DELLA PROCREAZIONE (I CAMPI,LA
ROCCIA)
• IN SENSO ANCORA PIU’ STRETTO :
OGNI FORMA CAVA (L’UTERO),IL
FORNO,L’ANFORA,LA CAVERNA
7. LA TERRACOTTA :
LE PRIME FORME DI SCRITTURA
TAVOLETTA DI EBLA
A CARATTERI CUNEIFORMI ( 2.400 A.C).
FRAMMENTO DI TAVOLETTA SUMERICA
DEL IV MILL.CHE INDICA ALCUNI ATTRIBUTI
DI UN VINO (ROSSO,DOLCE,MIELATO)
9. La coppa di Nestore (VIII sec a.C) ritovata ad Ischia nel 1955 da Buchner.
La scritta in alfabeto calcidiese
“ ….chiunque beva da questa coppa ,subito
sarà preso dal desiderio della bionda Afrodite ..
11. Cultura di Shulaveri (6°-4° millennio a.C)
Arukhlo
(4° millennio a.C)
Neolitico
Khramis didi gora (6-5 ° millennio a.C)
Cultura di Kura-Araxes (3° millennio a.C)
Kvatskhelebi Berikldeebi
Cultura di Trialeti
(2° millennio a.C)
Badeni Trialeti
Primo millenio a.C
Vasi potori a forma di
foglia di vite
Khizannaant Gora
Sioni
8-6° sec.a.C
Mtskheta
9° sec. a.C.
I VASI DI TERRACOTTA : I PIU’ANTICHI TESTIMONI DELL’USO
RITUALE DEL VINO (GEORGIA)
12. LA TERRACOTTA : IL PRIMO
MATERIALE PER L’ENOLOGIA
Sileno addormentato,
IV secolo a. C.
[8]What better place to look for evidence of wine dating to the Neolithic period than our my home-base at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, which has one of the best collections of well-documented excavated artifacts in the world. After the conference, I simply asked a Neolithic archaeologist--Mary Voigt, seen here in the red shirt and white hat--if she had ever noted intriguing residues on any of the Neolithic pottery she had excavated. In 1968 she had directed the expedition to Hajji Firuz. Yes, she told me, she did remember some yellowish residues on the bottom of a narrow-mouthed jar––including the one here. This jar and 5 others were set into the clay floor and lined up along the wall of this kitchen, with an oven and other cooking vessels. Each had a capacity of about 9-liters or 2½ gallons when full. At the time, Mary had thought the residue might be from milk, yogurt or some other dairy product. A chemical analysis at time, however, had come up negative; the techniques simply weren’t sensitive enough. The sherds then sat in the Near Eastern storage room in the museum's basement for twenty-five years.
[11]Of course, if oxygen remains available, fermentation can continue and eventually the acetic acid bacteria convert all the wine to vinegar—this is called “wine disease” that any competent winemaker, even one living in the Neolithic period, wants to avoid. Although cork was not yet available, raw clay stoppers function the same way, absorbing liquid and expanding to seal off the mouth of the jar. Such stoppers were found in the vicinity of the wine jars at Hajji Firuz. After the clay cork was popped, I could try to sniff out the oldest vintage in the world—a tried and true method of archaeological chemistry!
[10]Some archaeological considerations now come into play in determining that this grape product was in fact wine. Note that the jar has a relatively long, narrow neck, which is ideally suited to pouring liquids. I have already said that the residue was confined to the bottom half of the jar, and this is where precipitates from liquids accumulate. Most likely, then, the jar contained grape juice. A warm climate and slow pressing methods assured that grape juice–with just the right water content and nutrient mix--quickly fermented to wine, since natural yeast lives on some grape skins.
The yeast cell, budding at the right, was microscopic and too small for ancient humans to see, but it is responsible for turning grape juice into wine in a seemingly miraculous process.
The carbon dioxide, evolved during fermentation and roiling the surface of the fermenting grape juice, must have amazed the earliest winemakers.
Since the grape juice was probably partly fermented in the jars themselves, one can imagine them rocking back and forth and further adding to the mystique and allure of the beverage.
When they drunk the wine, they were even more amazed. Here was a beverage that was a mind-altering substance, medicine, religious symbol, and social lubricant all rolled into one.
