Dorota Dzierzbicka

WINE IN GRAECO­ROMAN EGYPT

doctoral dissertation prepared

under the supervision of

dr hab. Prof. UW Tomasz Derda

February 2011
University of Warsaw
Faculty of History – Institute of Archaeology
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
References and abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii

INTRODUCTION
I. The scope of this study: objectives and limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
II. State of research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
III. Sources
III.1. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
III.2. Literary sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
III.3. Documentary sources
III.3.a. Introductory remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
III.3.b. Private documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
III.3.c. Official documents, fiscal registers and receipts. . . . . . . . . . .23
III.4. Archaeological sources
III.4.a. Remains of wineries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
III.4.b. Amphorae and their production sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
The Egyptian amphora repertoire – 27; Foreign amphorae – 30;
Supplementary evidence: Mediterranean amphorae in India –
32; Limitations of the amphora evidence; Characteristics of jars
used for wine – 33.
IV. Content and composition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

PART I. LOCAL WINE

I.1. Wine producing regions
I.1.a. Locating the Egyptian wine industry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
I.1.b. Delta and the western coastline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Mareotis – 51; The Delta – 55; Western coastline – 57; Abu Mina – 58.
I.1.c. Fayum Oasis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Ptolemaic period – 60 (Meris of Herakleides – 60; Meris of Polemon –
61; Meris of Themistos – 62); Roman period – 63 (Meris of
Herakleides – 63; Meris of Polemon – 64; Meris of Themistos – 66);
Late Antiquity and the Byzantine period – 68.
I.1.d. The Nile Valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Memphites – 69; Herakleopolites – 70; Oxyrhynchites – 70;
Hermopolites – 72; Region of Antinoopolis – 74; Antaiopolites – 74;
Thinites – 76; Koptos – 76; Thebes – 77; Pathyris – 79; Edfu – 80;
Aswan – 82.

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 I.1.e. Western Desert Oases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Oasis Magna – 84; Oasis Parva – 86.

I.2. Vineyard owners

I.2.a. Ptolemaic period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87
The Crown – 89; Ptolemaic aristocracy – 89; Cleruchs – 91; Wealthy
civilians – 93; Native Egyptians – 94; Temples – 96.
I.2.b. Roman period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97
Roman absentees – 98; Alexandrian absentees – 103; The emperor
(ousiakos logos) – 104; Alexandria‐based elite of the 3rd c. AD – 105;
Veterans – 108; Metropolitai – 109; Vineyard owners of modest means
– 113.
I.2.c. Late Antiquity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Municipal elites – 115; Middle bureaucracy – 116; Aristocracy – 117;
Churches and monasteries – 120.

I.3. Persons engaged in wine production

I.3.a. Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122
I.3.b. Skilled vineyard labourers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126
I.3.c. Casual labourers and specialists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133
I.3.d. Lessees of vineyards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

I.4. Kinds of wine produced in Egypt

I.4.a. The process of wine making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144
The vintage and pressing – 144; Decanting and storage – 149.
I.4.b. Types of vines grown in Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
I.4.c. Aged wine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
I.4.d. Special wines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Μυρσινᾶτον – 166; Στυρακᾶτον – 167; Κονδῖτον – 168; Ἀψινθᾶτον –
171; Οἰνομέλι – 174; Καρυοφυλλᾶτον – 175; Κιτρᾶτον – 175;
Κυδωνᾶτον – 176; Σαμψούχινος οἶνος – 176; Ῥοσᾶτον –176;
Mουσχοροσᾶτον – 178; Oἶνος ἀπὸ ἀσταφίδος – 179; Oἶνος δευτέριος –
180.

I.5. Sale and distribution of wine

I.5.a. Payment of taxes in kind. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Ptolemaic period – 181 (Apomoira – 181; Other taxes paid in kind –
185); Roman period – 186.
I.5.b. Gratuities and estate use of wine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

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 Domestic consumption and gifts – 189; Extras and bonuses for staff
and labourers – 190.
I.5.c. Sale of wine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Ptolemaic period – 192; Roman period – 195 (Sale to rural and urban
retailers – 195; Direct sales to estate employees or outsiders – 199).

PART II. IMPORTED WINE

II.1. Aegean Sea
II.1.a. Chios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
II.1.b. Thasos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
II.1.c. Lesbos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
II.1.d. Kos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
II.1.e. Euboea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
II.2. Western Asia Minor
II.2.a. Tmolos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
II.2.b. Kolophon (?) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
II.2.c. Ephesos (?) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
II.2.d. Knidos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
II.2.e. Rhodes and the Rhodian Peraea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
II.3. South Coast of Asia Minor (Pamphylia, Cilicia)
II.3.a. Pamphylia (?) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .250
II.3.b. Cilicia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .251
II.4. Ionian Sea
II.4.a. Leukas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .255
II.5. Crete and Onysia
II.5.a. Crete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .258
II.5.b. Onysia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
II.6. Cyprus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .263
II.7. Italy and Sicily
II.7.a. ‘Italian’ wine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .269
II.7.b. Campanian wine (?). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..272
II.7.c. Hadrianum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
II.7.d. Aminian wine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
II.7.e. Pollian wine (?). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .280
II.8. Gaul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
II.9. Spain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .285
II.10. The Levant
II.10.a. Palestine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .288

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 II.10.b. Gaza. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
II.10.c. Askalon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .294
II.10.d. Laodikeia / Laodicea ad Mare (northern Syria) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .297

CONCLUSIONS
I. Continuity, change and diversity in Egyptian wine production . . . . . . . . . . . . .303
II. Wine import
II.1. The early Ptolemaic period (3rd c. BC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .319
II.2. The later Ptolemaic period (2nd‐1st c. BC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
II.3. The early Roman period (second half of 1st c. BC – 3rd c. AD) . . . . 324
II.4. Late Roman and Byzantine periods (4th – 7th c. AD) .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

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AUTOREFERAT

WINE IN GRAECO‐ROMAN EGYPT

DOROTA DZIERZBICKA

In the late 2nd century AD Athenaeus of Naukratis writes about the wines
of his homeland: ‘The quantity of vines planted along the Nile matches the river’s
size, and many of the wines have unique colours and flavours.’ The emergence
and development of a market for local and imported wine was a phenomenon
characteristic of the Graeco‐Roman period in Egypt. Upon arrival of Alexander
the Great, wine in Egypt was for the gods and aristocracy and the traditional
beverage of the Nile Valley was beer, but through the ages it was wine that
became the staple drink of the Egyptian population.
The presented doctoral dissertation is the first attempt to glimpse Egypt’s
wine supply from a broad chronological and contextual perspective using
archaeological, documentary, literary and iconographic evidence. The
chronological framework of my study covered the Ptolemaic, Roman and
Byzantine periods – roughly a thousand years, from the end of the 4th century
BC to the 7th century AD. Such a dating was necessary to view wine as an
element of broadly understood Hellenic culture, to track the changes its supply
underwent over this long period and to place them in historical context.
My aim was to try to determine the role of both local and imported wines
on the Egyptian market during the Graeco‐Roman period. Hence the decision to
divide the work into two parts: in the first part, devoted to local production, I
attempted to establish where and how wine was manufactured, what was the
social base for this industry, and what kinds of wine were locally produced in
Egypt, as well as what patterns of distribution wine followed after it left the
winery. In the second part I tried to determine which foreign wines reached
Egypt during the Graeco‐Roman period, to get a glimpse of the supply and
demand mechanisms of the country’s foreign wine market and channels of
distribution, and to view Egypt in a wider perspective of the Mediterranean
trade routes.
Egyptian wine was the object of study of several scholars who either

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devoted separate works to this country’s viticulture and wine production or
considered wine within a broader topic. However, most of them assumed a
narrower chronological framework. All of them relied on a source base confined
to Greek papyri and literary sources. Meanwhile today it is possible – and
necessary – to also include relevant textual evidence in demotic and Coptic, as
well as the available archaeological data. My aim was to build bridges between
studies in papyrology, archaeology and ceramology to reach a new quality of
understanding of this important sector of the ancient economy. This was not an
easy task because of the somewhat hermetic nature of these disciplines and the
sheer bulk of information to process. Each of the source categories under
consideration also has different shortcomings and peculiarities, the presentation
of which would require much more time than the quarter of an hour I have at my
disposal.
Wine production is attested in various localities along the entire Nile
Valley, from the Delta to Aswan, and in the Oases of the Western Desert. In some
regions it had a remarkably well‐established tradition. On the Mareotic shore, in
the Fayum, and the Theban region it is attested throughout the Graeco‐Roman
period. Also Oasis Magna produced wine without interruption, from
pre‐Ptolemaic times until its decline at the end of the 4th c. AD. Some major
geographic changes did occur, however. For instance, the wine industry gained
importance in the Oxyrhynchite and Hermopolite nomes in the early Roman
period (presumably a little earlier than the mid‐2nd c. AD) and it developed
dynamically through the Late Roman and Byzantine periods. The time of the
emergence of this ‘Middle‐Egyptian’ wine industry coincides with social changes
which influenced land ownership patterns in Egypt, namely the emergence of
municipal elites which later developed into the Byzantine aristocracy.

The method of wine making in Graeco‐Roman Egypt is known thanks to

descriptions and mentions in papyri, illustrated by remains of wineries. A very
important source is a scene that adorns the pronaos of the tomb of Petosiris at
Tuna el‐Gebel, Middle Egypt. Although the development of Egyptian wine
production was tied to the process of Hellenisation, the industry was deeply
rooted in traditions that predate the arrival of the Greeks by centuries or even
millennia. The remains of basic wine‐making units consisting of a treading

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platform and rectangular collection basin documented in Lower Egypt show
similarities to presses depicted in vintage scenes in tombs from the Pharaonic
period. It was also an Egyptian custom to store fermenting wine in small jars
rather than in dolia. The Greeks, however, introduced the practice of
impregnating wine containers with pitch, as well as new maturing techniques. It
therefore seems justified to see Egyptian wine production as a blend of Hellenic
know‐how and native practice, dictated by the need to adapt to the local climatic
conditions and resources.
A great majority of the wines produced in Egypt were of ordinary grade.
They were mostly consumed within a year after the vintage and prolonged
storage was uncommon. The availability of wine older than 18 months was
limited and every year of maturing significantly increased its value. Both red and
white wines were manufactured in the Nile Valley and they appear to have been
made from both red and white grape varieties, some of which probably had been
growing on Egyptian soil already in the Pharaonic period. The Greeks that
arrived to Egypt in the beginning of the Graeco‐Roman period imported foreign
vine shoots, but it is impossible to tell which varieties – the local or the foreign
ones – ultimately dominated in the Egyptian viticulture. Despite Athenaeus’
statement quoted at the beginning, we are in the dark about the specific qualities
of most of them. Aside from a few references to ‘sweet’ wines in written sources
we have little information on the taste. The scarcity of mentions of the flavours of
Egyptian wines in literary sources and papyri seems to indicate that this was not
a product of interest to connoisseurs. An exception may have been the wine of
the Western Delta, which had a good reputation among Roman authors.
However, one must keep in mind that even if despite the geographic and
economic limitations the Egyptian suppliers managed to satisfy the needs of the
local consumers, there was not enough native wine to, for instance, export it on a
large scale. This may have been the primary reason why Egyptian wine was not
shipped overseas, not its quality.
There were few changes in viticulture and wine production throughout
the Graeco‐Roman period and these were triggered by technological advances.
The emergence and diffusion of new irrigation technologies made it possible to
water large plots of vineland and the introduction of screw presses made wine

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manufacturing more efficient. However, the increased production in Egypt must
have followed increased demand. The driving force behind it was therefore most
certainly social: the progressing Hellenisation of the dietary needs of Egypt’s
population.
Papyri provide a wealth of information on ownership and management of
wine producing estates in Egypt. Despite the chronological span of the sources,
the picture that emerges is surprisingly uniform and several general conclusions
can be made. Throughout the Graeco‐Roman period two conditions went hand in
hand with the planting of vineyards. One was investment. Vines were cultivated
predominantly by wealthy individuals, owners of large estates. Despite the social
and political changes that periodically brought about the emergence of new
elites and the decline of the old ones, vineyards were always in the hands of
those who had a cash surplus, regardless of their background.
The second condition of vineyard development was a secure form of land
tenure, either full ownership or a form of extended property rights. Throughout
the Graeco‐Roman period the vine was cultivated mostly by private, non‐
institutional landholders. Wealthy members of the Egyptian society had a special
interest in vine growing as a way of diversifying their sources of income from
agriculture. Viticulture made it possible to cultivate land more intensively, as it
yielded a higher volume of produce for a unit of land than grain. However, it is
not likely that landowners favoured vine‐land over grain‐land as a source of
income. They balanced the risks involved in the production of potentially highly
profitable crops like wine against more secure income from grain.
Continuity also characterised the solutions applied in the management of
vineyards throughout the Graeco‐Roman period. Vineland was managed by
permanent employees of estates or leased out for a period of time to a tenant
who paid fixed rent or delivered a share of the yield. Certain jobs were
contracted out to specialists, who either received fixed wages or were allowed to
keep a part of the produce. In general, it seems that vineyard management on
Egyptian estates was usually a combination of these three options. The hire of
managers on wine‐producing estates was common and not specific to any
particular class of landowners. However, it was not necessarily a solution
applied globally to all plots belonging to a given estate. Landowners who

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possessed several vineyards may have kept some of them under direct
management and leased out other plots of vine‐land, perhaps the ones that
required more attention and investment or the ones in remote locations. Overall,
in their choices of management solutions the landowners were driven by the
concern to ensure the best possible care for the vineyard and produce.
Let us now turn our attention to the import of wine. Imported wine is
attested in documentary and ceramic evidence, as well as in a few literary
sources. In the 3rd century BC imported wine came primarily from the Aegean
islands, as well as Cyprus and the island of Leukas on the Ionian Sea. The
Egyptian evidence from the turn of the 3rd and 2nd c BC reflects two general
trends in wine commerce: the disappearance of the ‘old’ vintages and the
emergence of new commercial powers on the wine market: western Asia Minor,
Kos and above all Rhodes, which were all renowned suppliers of salty wines. We
can also see Italian wines joining the Egyptian market already in the latter half of
the 3rd c BC.
The import of wine to Egypt varied throughout the Ptolemaic Period. At
first, when the large‐scale cultivation of the vine had just been launched in the
Nile Valley, import of foreign wine was necessary to satisfy the dietary needs of
the Hellenic population. On the other hand, high taxes were imposed on
imported wine. Possibly the aim was to protect the developing local production,
or to profit from the fact that import of this staple product was unavoidable in
the face of inadequate local supply. With the settlement of more and more
Greeks in Egypt and the increasing Hellenisation of the native population there
was a need for large‐scale import of less expensive wines. This need was
satisfied by Rhodian wine, which dominated the Egyptian market from the 2nd c
BC onwards.
By the 1st century BC the changes in the origin of wine imported to Egypt
are triggered by external factors. The rise and expansion of the Roman Empire
triggered shifts in the Mediterranean trade routes. The market position of
Rhodes, Knidos or Kos declined drastically after the Empire engulfed them. As
soon as the Seleukid kingdom is no longer an obstacle we can see the flow of
wine from Syria, especially Laodicea‐ad‐Mare, and Palestine. The successful
development of vineyards in western provinces, Gaul and Spain, resulted in the

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export of wine as far as Egypt. As the Romans put an end to piracy in Crete and
Roman colonists invested in its vine‐growing estates, the wine business
developed on a large scale on the island. Also the new Roman order introduced in
Cilicia and Cyprus brought about the dynamic development of vineyards and the
export of wine.
When Egypt became a Roman province it was integrated into the
Empire’s trade network as a stepping‐stone for Mediterranean wine travelling
East: to Axum, Arabia and India. Egypt’s ports on the Red Sea coast became the
Empire’s connection to the eastern markets. Wine travelled to Alexandria and up
the Nile, then on camelback across the Eastern Desert to the ports on the Red Sea
Coast. There, it was dispatched aboard merchant ships to other Red Sea ports or
beyond, to Arabia or India.
In the 3rd c AD Italian, Gallic, Laodicean and Cretan amphorae become
scarce or absent from Egypt. These changes seem to have little to do with the
tastes of the Egyptians and more with new shifts in the trade network, largely
due to the effects of the Crisis of the Third Century on western provinces. After
the economic division of the Roman Empire into the East and West parts in the
4th century, Egypt was cut off from the western suppliers and new routes were
established within the Eastern part of the Mediterranean. The wine‐producing
regions of Palestine, Cilicia, and Cyprus, which were already present on the
market in the early Roman period, but played a relatively minor role, developed
into the leading suppliers of wine to Egypt.
Research on wine and on other aspects of the civilization forged in the
Egyptian melting pot benefits from interdisciplinary studies that take into
consideration both the material remains and the textual evidence. I hope that
thanks to such an approach my dissertation is a step towards a better
understanding of the economy and culture of Graeco‐Roman Egypt.