Bronze Age Caucasus Pots Reveal Early Dairy and Wine Use

A study of pottery from the Bronze Age Caucasus has found evidence that communities there were already using dairy products, fruit-based foods and grape drinks about 5,000 years ago, offering a detailed look at how people in the Kura-Araxes culture ate and drank.

The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was carried out by an international team that included the University of Bari Aldo Moro in Italy, the University of Bonn in Germany and several research institutions in Azerbaijan, Austria and France. It focused on 52 ceramic vessels from the site of Qaraçinar in the southern Caucasus and used residue analysis to identify what had been cooked, stored or consumed in them.

The findings suggest that the people who lived in the region during the Bronze Age prepared and consumed dairy products, fruit and grape-based beverages, oils, plant waxes and conifer resins. The researchers said the resins may have been used as flavorings or preservatives. They also found signs that grape juice or wine, likely mixed with resin, was not reserved only for elites but was part of broader daily use.

The study also points to a functional division among the vessels. Plain ceramics were mainly used for cooking, while red and black burnished pots appear to have been used for eating or drinking dairy products that were not cooked, as well as beverages made from fruit and grapes. The presence of fruit residues in cooking pots and storage jars suggests that fruit may have been used to sweeten food or add flavor, and possibly played a role in cheese-making processes.

Another notable result was the identification of millet residues, which indicates contact with Central Asia, where the grain was cultivated. The researchers said this is the earliest evidence yet found for millet in the southern Caucasus.

Giulio Palumbi, a professor of prehistoric and protohistoric archaeology at the University of Bari Aldo Moro, said pottery was one of the most distinctive expressions of Kura-Araxes culture and that its use in food-related practices likely played a central role in social integration and cultural transmission among these communities.