Jane M. Renfrew - Böcker

This volume investigates diverse aspects pertaining to the historic, social, and economic value of wine, from the prehistory through to modern times. It focuses on the Aegean and Cyprus, two key areas for the history of the vine and the development of the economic value and trading of wine. No previous study has achieved the detailed coverage presented in this volume, spanning such a chronological range with consistently innovative and approaches, methodologies and new datasets. With excellent case studies, it synthesizes archaeological, archaeobotanical, and organic remains, complemented by written sources. Through discussion of the social contexts of food and drink in Neolithic Greece, the extensive production and long-distance trade of wine, the resulting economic organization and its impact on land management, the social role of wine consumption in ritual or in ceremonial feasting, the production of wine in rural Hellenistic Greece, its therapeutic use, trade in the Byzantine era and even modern day production in Cyprus (to mention only a few of the central points), this volume essentially deepens our understanding of this complex topic and as well as pointing the way to new possibilities for future research.