This volume presents contemporary evidence - scientific, archaeological, botanical, textual and historical - for major revisions in the understanding of winemaking in antiquity. Among the subjects covered are the domestication of the Vinifera grape, the wine trade, the icongraphy of ancient wine, and the analytical and archaeological challenges posed by ancient wines. The essayists argue that wine existed as long ago as 3500BC, almost half a millenium earlier than experts believed. This work offers a wide-ranging treatment of wine in the early history of western Asia and the Mediterranean.