Creating Regional Byzantine Wine Traditions in the Southern Levant

The papyrological discussion of jars found in Egypt has shown the importance of identifying geographically specific wine amphorae with specific wine terroirs. Prestige wines were produced around the Roman and Byzantine Mediterranean, with important wines originating along the Levantine coast, especially from Laodicea, Gaza and Ashqelon. Recent excavations along the southern coastal plain of Israel have exposed the remains of multiple wineries, characterised by typical architectural and technological features and by a complete production system that included multiple wine presses on single estates. Furthermore, these estates usually integrated localised production of Gazan and Baggy-shaped wine jars in huge kiln facilities, set in close proximity to the winepresses. It is now possible to group these wineries and their associated pottery kilns together with the specific amphora produced there for the transport of the wine for export and connect them as an integrated terroir for the production and marketing of prestige Gazan and Ashqelon wines. Continued analysis of the architecture of winepresses throughout the Byzantine Levant shows that a number of separate architectural traditions of winepresses developed that can now be geographically and chronologically identified. As the differences between these installations have consequences for the technology of wine production, this paper will attempt to determine if it is possible to identify these different types of winepresses with localised wine terroirs during the Byzantine period.