High-rise to be built over ‘world’s oldest cellar’

12th January, 2016 by Rupert Millar

A 3,700-year-old wine cellar found in a Canaanite palace is to be incorporated into a new high-rise in the Israeli city of Nahariya.

Photo credit: Guy Fitoussi

The ‘cellar’ in the Bronze Age palace was uncovered in 2013 and held 40 ceramic jars each capable of holding 13 gallons of wine – probably reserved for banquets.

The excavation has been a long one and archaeologists can now say that the palace, located extremely close to the coast, served as an “administrative centre” at the heart of a thriving Mediterranean trade network.

As well as the wine jars, ceramic figurines of people and animals, bronze weapons and foreign pottery have been discovered at the site. The palace was destroyed by fire at least….

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2 Responses to “High-rise to be built over ‘world’s oldest cellar’”

Assaf Yasur-Landau says:

January 21, 2016 at 9:05 am

This note is actually a composite of two excavations. One, the Late Bronze Age fort at Nahariya, dug this year, and will be preserved in the basement of the new building. The second is the relatively nearby palace of tel Kabri with its Middle Bronze Age wine storage rooms (hence the 2013 excavations, and the age of the 3700 years). The wine storage rooms of Tel Kabri are of course not in any danger-and were found to be larger and contianing more than 40 jars in the 2015 season.Please see the results of our season https://digkabri2015.wordpress.com/
Sincerely,
Assaf Yasur-Landau, co-director of the Tel Kabri excavations.

Reply
- Rupert Millar says:
  
  January 21, 2016 at 9:12 am
  
  Thank you for making that clear, Mr Yasur-Landau.
  
  Reply