This month’s Digging
Deeper article investigates a topic close to ours and many an
archaeologist’s heart .... booze. Why? Well wine not! *hiccup*
The article, from the Journal
of Field Archaeology, explores the archaeological
and historical investigation of the flourishing wine and brandy industry in the Osmore (Moquegua)
valley of far southern Peru, or also known as the Moquegua Bodegas Project.
The Moquegua Bodegas Project took place across six summer
field seasons between 1985 and 1990, and began with surveys that led to the
identification of 130 wine hacienda sites. Subsequent mapping and shovel
testing focused on 28 of these sites and more extensive excavations were
undertaken at four of them.
The article provides a descriptive overview of all the hacienda
sites including discussion on their physical structures, layouts, and sightings
in the valley.
You can read the article abstract below:
Spanish colonial
settlement of the Moquegua valley of far southern Peru was oriented
economically toward production of wine and brandy. A total of
130 wine hacienda sites (bodegas) can be identified there, primarily
on the basis of adobe structures on hills bordering the valley. These sites had
both residential and “industrial” functions, and their arrangements can be
described by four site plans or layouts.
This article describes
the “industrial” sectors of the sites, particularly the facilities
for wine and brandy making (crushing tanks) rooms holding earthenware
fermentation jars, distillery apparatus, and the functionally “specialized”
site plan. Facilities were arranged spatially to incorporate gravity flow in
moving liquids. The technology and organization of wine-making at the
Moquegua sites evince similarities not only with Spanish models, but also with
much earlier Roman wine-making.
The article is now available to read online for free, so pour yourself a large glass, sit back and enjoy. Cheers!
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