Speyer wine bottle facts for kids
The Speyer wine bottle (also called Römerwein) is a very old bottle that is sealed shut. People believe it contains liquid wine. It got its name because it was found in a Roman tomb near Speyer, Germany. This bottle is thought to be the oldest known bottle of wine in the world.
What is the Speyer Wine Bottle?
The Speyer wine bottle was found in 1867. It was discovered in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany, close to Speyer. This area is one of the oldest places where people lived. The bottle is famous for being the "world's oldest existing bottle of wine."
Experts believe the bottle was made between 325 and 350 AD. This makes it the oldest unopened bottle of wine known today. Since it was found, the bottle has been on display. You can see it in the Wine Museum section of the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer. It has always been shown in the same spot in the museum's Tower Room.
The "Römerwein" is a glass bottle that holds about 1.5 L (51 U.S. fl oz) of liquid. It has a yellow-green color and looks a bit like an amphora. An amphora is an ancient jar with two handles. This bottle even has handles shaped like dolphins!
How Was It Found?
The bottle was found during an archaeological dig. This dig explored a Roman nobleman's tomb from the 4th century AD. The tomb held two large stone coffins, called sarcophagi. One coffin held the body of a man, and the other held a woman's body.
Some stories say the man was a Roman soldier. The wine was likely placed there as a special item for his journey to the afterlife. There were many glass bottles in the tomb. The woman's coffin had six, and the man's had ten. But only one of these bottles still contained liquid inside.
This special bottle has a clear liquid in the bottom part. Above that, there is a thick mixture. This mixture is similar to rosin, which is a sticky substance from trees.
How Did the Wine Last So Long?
Even though the liquid has likely lost its alcohol, tests suggest that at least some of it was once wine. The wine was mixed with different herbs. The main reason the wine stayed preserved for so long is because of a lot of thick olive oil. This olive oil was added to the bottle to keep air out. A hot wax seal was also used to close the bottle tightly.
An ancient Roman writer named Petronius (who lived around 27–66 AD) wrote about bottles sealed with plaster. The Speyer bottle was sealed in a similar way. It's quite unusual that the bottle is made of glass. Usually, Roman glass was too fragile to last for such a long time.
Scientists have thought about opening the bottle to study the liquid more closely. However, as of 2022, the bottle remains unopened. This is because they are worried about what might happen to the liquid if it touches the air. The museum's curator, Ludger Tekampe, has said that the bottle has looked exactly the same for the past 25 years.
