Sixteen-century-old Wine Buried in Perperikon

Standard daily, 17 Aug 2007

During the excavation of a big settlement of Perpericon from the time of the Roman Empire, archeologists ran into traces of wine, sixteen centuries old. The residues were discovered in four huge terracotta pythoses, which must have been full of wine when buried under the debris. The archeologists date the wine containers judging by the coins and the others finds dated the 3rd or 4th cent. AD, when the rock settlement had its second renaissance. The four jars were immured in the wall of a house just next to the rampart.

"It is noteworthy that the pythoses remained intact, covered with limestone slabs," Prof. Ovcharov said.
As the excavations are going on, local masons are restoring and fortifying the unearthed walls.

One of the site's landmarks is the huge reservoir on top of the hill, which is now fully unearthed after two months of excruciating. The reservoir is twelve meters high, six meters wide and six meters deep and its capacity is approximately 270 tons of water.

Head of the expedition Prof. Ovcharov says this is the biggest known water reservoir on the Balkans. The reservoir must have been constructed in the third or fourth century and it was probably used for centuries on until the Ottoman Conquest in the 14th century.