More than meets the eye: new archaeobotanical evidence on Bronze Age viticulture and wine making in the Peloponnese, Greece

Viticulture and wine making have been at the heart of discussions concerning the Mycenaean society with elite groups which emerged in the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age. In the south of Greece, in Crete and the Peloponnese, viticulture and wine consumption are mentioned in 2nd millennium bc Linear B texts. Despite the key role of the grapevine, however, little direct archaeobotanical evidence has been available from the Peloponnese until now. This paper reviews all the archaeobotanical Vitis finds from the Peloponnese (pollen, charcoal, grape pips) and adds new data from the site P.O.T.A. Romanou that have been analysed in an integrated study with morphometric analyses of grape pips, charcoal identification and spatial distribution. We are able to show that during the 3rd millennium bc there was an incipient form of grapevine cultivation in the Peloponnese which provided an adequate yield for wine making at P.O.T.A. Romanou. Despite the lack of morphologically domesticated grape pips, there is convincing evidence for the identification of the early steps of viticulture in the region, a process that later led to systematic cultivation under control of the vineyards by elite parts of society during the 2nd millennium bc , as described in the Linear B archives. Our study supports the view that the early stages of viticulture might not be recognisable in the archaeobotanical record.