The Braidwood Visiting Scholar Lecture

Exploring the Roots of the Vine: The History and Archaeology of the Earliest Wines

Stephen Batiuk
University of Toronto

Wed, October 3, 2018
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM CDT

Breasted Hall
Oriental Institute
1155 East 58th Street
Chicago, IL 60637

Wine is one of the most commonly enjoyed and alcoholic beverages in the modern world. But what is the antiquity and history of this otherworldly drink? When and how was it first developed? How did it spread from its point of origin? Dr. Stephen Batiuk will show how new archaeological field work and bio-molecular chemistry and genetics are helping unlock this story, pushing its origins back to the Neolithic period and to the region of Caucasia, modern Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and how one of our earliest and best documented examples of an ancient migration probably led to the spread of wine and wine culture across the Ancient Near East, and then eventually across the rest of the Mediterranean World.

More information

This lecture will be the last lecture to take place in Breastd Hall before renovations begin. A catered reception will follow.