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Shipwreck Yields World's Oldest Salad Dressing
Discovery News ^ | Jennifer Viegas

Posted on 06/24/2008 7:28:42 AM PDT by blam

Shipwreck Yields World's Oldest Salad Dressing

Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

June 20, 2008 -- Olive oil infused with fragrant herbs has been identified in an ancient Greek ceramic transport jar known as an amphora, along with another container of what could be the world's oldest retsina-type wine, according to a recent Journal of Archaeological Science paper.

It is the first time DNA has been extracted from shipwrecked artifacts -- the two large jars were recovered from a 2,400-year-old wrecked vessel off the Greek island of Chios. If the second jar indeed contained a retsina-like wine, which is preserved and flavored with a tree resin known as mastic, then the find would push back the known origins of mastic cultivation by 200 years.

"This (study) opens new possibilities for archaeologists -- now perhaps we can figure out what was carried in almost every 'empty' jar we find in land excavations or shipwrecks," researcher Brendan Foley of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution told Discovery News.

"Maybe we can even go back to the amphorae, jars and cooking pots previously excavated and now sitting in museum storerooms around the world and ask new questions of each artifact," he added.

The discoveries resulted from an international collaboration involving Foley, Swedish scientist Maria Hansson, and Greek archaeologists Dimitris Kourkoumelis and Theotokis Theodoulou of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, overseen by Calliopi Preka-Alexandri and Vivi Vassilopoulou.

For the study, Hansson and Foley swabbed the jars with a chemical that allowed them to collect any genetic material inside. They then amplified and sequenced the DNA, comparing it to known DNA "signatures" from a database.

Since these signatures are unique for all plants and animals, they let researchers identify the source of the material in question. There is little doubt the first amphora contained the herb-infused olive oil, which was likely used to dress and flavor meals. The scientists suspect the potent antioxidant properties of oregano helped to preserve the mixture over the millennia.

As for the second amphora, its DNA signature matched a plant from the Pistacia genus. That points to either pistachio nuts or mastic (scientific name Pistacia lentiscus).

Foley said the ancient Greeks were known to have shipped huge containers of nuts. One third-century B.C. wreck, in fact, contained jar after jar of them. But since the design of this particular amphora was most associated with wine shipments, mastic-flavored wine is the more likely choice.

Mastic, like some herbs, serves as both a flavoring and a preservative. It was the most popular wine preservative until the Romans started using chemicals called sulfites, which to this day are found in most wines.

Both shipwrecked containers appeared empty to the naked eye, but enough of their contents had been absorbed into the uppermost layers of the ceramic interiors to enable the discoveries.

Duccio Cavalieri of the Bauer Center for Genomics Research and his team used a comparable DNA method to identify common yeast in wine jars from Egypt. The yeast is still used to make modern wines, breads and beers.

"(Our) results indicate that this organism was probably responsible for wine fermentation by at least 3150 B.C.," Cavalieri and his colleagues wrote.

Given the success of the two DNA studies, this form of minimally invasive testing may now become the norm, replacing, in some cases, destructive scrapings and les precise identification methods such as gas chromatography.

Foley and his colleagues are working in Sweden now, but they plan to return to Greece soon to conduct further research there.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agriculture; animalhusbandry; chios; dressing; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; huntergatherers; hydroxytyrosol; n3pfa; oleicacid; oliveoil; salad; ship; shipwreck; wreck
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1 posted on 06/24/2008 7:28:42 AM PDT by blam
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To: blam

Don’t eat the mayo.


2 posted on 06/24/2008 7:29:36 AM PDT by AxelPaulsenJr (300 Million People Going Bust Over High Gasoline Prices and Hussein Obama Wants to Hug Trees.)
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To: blam

They’ve yet to look in my refrigerator.


3 posted on 06/24/2008 7:30:17 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: SunkenCiv
GGG Ping.

Ancient Condiment This ancient jar, recovered from a 2,400-year-old shipwreck, bore the traces of an unknown plant from the Pistachia genus.

4 posted on 06/24/2008 7:30:48 AM PDT by blam
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To: AxelPaulsenJr

Another Sinko Demayo.


5 posted on 06/24/2008 7:31:06 AM PDT by bmwcyle (If God wanted us to be Socialist, Karl Marx would have been born in America.)
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To: blam

Pass the croutons please.


6 posted on 06/24/2008 7:31:44 AM PDT by Pistolshot (When you let what you are define who you are, you create divisiveness.)
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To: bmwcyle

Good one!


7 posted on 06/24/2008 7:33:24 AM PDT by TruthShallSetYouFree (Abortion is to family planning what bankruptcy is to financial planning.)
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To: blam

Heck, I’ve got salad dressing in my fridge that’s older than that!............


8 posted on 06/24/2008 7:36:39 AM PDT by Red Badger (NOBODY MOVE!!!!.......I dropped me brain............................)
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To: AxelPaulsenJr
Don’t eat the mayo.


9 posted on 06/24/2008 7:37:50 AM PDT by maine-iac7 (No trees were killed in sending this message but a large number of electrons were terrible agitated)
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To: blam

Must be the supplier for the tightwad Greek-guy’s restaurant down the street.


10 posted on 06/24/2008 7:37:56 AM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: AxelPaulsenJr

I’ll pass on the 2,400 year old feta cheese too!


11 posted on 06/24/2008 7:38:11 AM PDT by Disturbin (Liberals: buying votes with your tax dollars)
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To: Disturbin

Was it found off of the Thousand Islands?


12 posted on 06/24/2008 7:40:16 AM PDT by BubbaJunebug
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To: blam

Might be good on some salmonella tomatoes.


13 posted on 06/24/2008 7:40:54 AM PDT by Proud2BeRight
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To: blam

Why were these containers made that way? Wouldn’t a flat base help avoid an extra stand? Or does it have something to do with collecting sediments at the pointed bottom?


14 posted on 06/24/2008 7:47:04 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
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To: Rebelbase

I ordered retsina wine at a Greek place. Yuk! Like drinking turpentine.

I read later that adulterating (denaturing?) wine with pine resin made it exempt from some Ottoman excise tax.


15 posted on 06/24/2008 7:49:11 AM PDT by elcid1970 (My cartridges are dipped in pig grease.)
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To: blam

“olive oil infused with fragrant herbs”

Great, now I’m starving.


16 posted on 06/24/2008 7:50:23 AM PDT by Natchez Hawk (This is Sammy Israel III filling in for DB Cooper who will be returning next week,)
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To: CarrotAndStick
Why were these containers made that way? Wouldn’t a flat base help avoid an extra stand? Or does it have something to do with collecting sediments at the pointed bottom?

I wondered the same thing.

Here's a link to the NYT about them:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9905EFDB1E3FF937A2575BC0A9679C8B63

Relevant quote:

". In fact, the long, pointed bottom of the typical amphora gave it an excellent shape for stacking against a ship's hull, according to Dr. Shelley Wachsmann, a nautical and biblical archaeologist at the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University.

''If you visualize three or four amphorae next to each other with the sides touching, there is a hole in the middle where the circles meet,'' he explained. ''If they are stacked in layers, an amphora in the next layer would rest in that hole.'' "
17 posted on 06/24/2008 8:01:09 AM PDT by chrisser (The Two Americas: Those that want to be coddled, Those that want to be left the hell alone.)
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To: All
I don't even want the words "geek" and "tossed salad" in the same sentence.


18 posted on 06/24/2008 8:06:12 AM PDT by Liberty2007 (Here's Savage's analysis of the POTUS race: The “Afro-Leninist v. the sarcophagus”.)
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To: blam

Sam and Ella’s salad dressing by any chance?


19 posted on 06/24/2008 8:08:41 AM PDT by DannyTN
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To: Liberty2007

grrr. the words “greek” and “tossed salad”


20 posted on 06/24/2008 8:13:12 AM PDT by Liberty2007 (Here's Savage's analysis of the POTUS race: The “Afro-Leninist v. the sarcophagus”.)
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