The Mind Creative MARCH 2015 | Page 35

WINE A 1600 year old bottle of wine found by German excavators is the oldest known wine in existence that is still in liquid state. It was discovered in one of two sarcophaguses, alongside many other bottles that had long since dried up and this particular bottle stayed wet because of the olive oil used (in place of a cork) to protect the wine from oxidizing. The contents are both waxy and silty, and the alcohol content is, of course, long gone. BREAD Supposedly 5500 years old, this overcooked bread was found in Oxfordshire, England and initially mistaken for charcoal till the archaeologists found crushed barley inside. This would probably have been made by the first people who entered Britain from Europe. The bread was found in a large hole filled with water among other Neolithic materials. BUTTER In 2009, archaeologists discovered 3000 years old butter in Ireland near a Kildare bog. Amazingly, it was intact but had turned to a fatty white wax called adipocere. Today, it is stored at the National Museum of Ireland and has been declared as a national treasure in Ireland. 35