Containers: History

A wide variety of materials were used for drinking and serving wine in the Ancient World, particularly china. In prehistoric times in the eastern Mediterranean, wine was generally put in earthenware jars, or sometimes into wooden containers, soon after the grapes had been trodden or pressed, and this basic fermentation technology remained the norm until the 20th century, when vats or tanks of concrete and stainless steel were introduced. The basic receptacles used for storing and transporting wine in classical antiquity were pottery amphorae, which varied greatly in size and shape but which could be sealed, thus preventing the potentially harmful access of oxygen. Larger pottery vessels for storing wine in the Roman world were known as dolia. During the 1st century bc, experiments were also undertaken in transporting wine in these dolia, anchored amidships, but their use did not persist. By the end of the 2nd century ad, amphorae production declined in Italy, although it continued in other parts of the eastern and southern Mediterranean, and most wine was transported long distance in wooden barrels. For short distances, numerous other vessels, in particular animal skins, were also used, especially in Iberia.