Beverages, as such, play a significant role in the history and cultural traditions of any people. This is because, from the earliest steps of their development, no person, no human society, no nation can do without one or another beverage. First and foremost, of course, is water. It is of crucial importance in human life.
However, in the course of further development and the emergence of various cults, water began to be replaced by other beverages – milk, plant juices, and finally, wine. “Wine was attributed with divine origin. It holds an honorable place in both Christian and Jewish religious cults,” wrote the renowned Russian and Soviet wine specialist, Professor N. Prostoserdov.
Viticulture and winemaking originated on Earth in ancient times. The legends and myths of different peoples show when, where, and how humanity learned about wine. In Egypt, it was as if Osiris brought wine. However, various historical studies and sources show otherwise. Apparently, Egypt owed its knowledge of wine to representatives of the “Armenoid race.” These were the rulers of Egypt, the Ramesses – the so-called “white pharaohs” (according to Oppenheim, G.E. Smith, B. Moshezon, and others).
They were natives of Avaris (the capital of the invaders – the Hyksos, in English sources they are referred to as “Hyksos”), the Ramesses “were great lovers of wine.” They introduced the culture of wine drinking to the Egyptians. P. Montet writes: “Ramesses II loved the Eastern Delta very much… He appreciated its mild climate, water expanses, meadows, and vineyards, which produced wine sweeter than honey… The Hyksos turned (Avaris – ed. S.N.) into their capital. After Ahmose expelled them from Egypt, the city fell into decline.”
In the territory of Armenia, in the vicinity of Mount Ararat, as biblical traditions and apocrypha say, the patriarch Noah planted a vine. This significant place was destroyed by an earthquake in 1840, but it retained the ancient Armenian etymology of the designation – “Akkori,” which in archaic Grabar means “planting of the vine.”
In Western, Central, and Minor Asia, the Caucasus, Syria, Mesopotamia, and even in China (the mysterious people “Tocharians”), the Armenoids-Arameans (ancestors of the Armenians) cultivated grapes at least three thousand years ago (and probably much earlier). The vineyards of Armenia were in optimal climatic conditions. The lowland and foothill areas of the Ararat Valley of Armenia were originally the most favorable for viticulture and winemaking.
Later, more than 80% of all vineyards in the USSR were concentrated here. Gradually, viticulture and winemaking began to advance into the mountainous regions of Armenia (Gandzasar, Meghri, etc.). However, it should be noted that the conditions there are not easy – on steep mountain slopes, there is very little soil, and it is heavily eroded or even completely washed away. But hardworking Armenian peasants carried soil from the plains “in baskets on their own backs” to cover the barren rocky exposures.
These rocky slopes had to be terraced to provide them with nutritious soil. Truly, each grape thus grown can be called golden. But the vineyards continued to gradually expand further (for example, only during the Soviet post-war five-year plan, the vineyard area expanded by 10,000 hectares).
The ancient Armenians were well acquainted with various methods of making and filtering wines, beers, and another beverage, a prototype of vodka (but much stronger). It is essential to say a few words about the ancient origin of Armenian vodka. In archaic Grabar, it was called “tski,” which is mentioned in the Bible. The strength of the ancient “proto-vodka” exceeded 70 degrees. This unique beverage still has the same name in Armenia today! Raw grape or grain materials were used to prepare this drink. It was distilled through a special copper coil.
Vodka was consumed for health purposes. The great Armenian scientist and physician A. Amassia (15th century) left the following information about the medicinal properties and contraindications of the drink: “It is called… in Armenian – tski… it causes headaches and harms the nerves… it causes the formation of bad humors. It is made from barley, wheat, and millet. It intoxicates and cheers. But if you drink a lot, it will cause nausea, vomiting, and strong winds in the intestines (gas formation; ed. S.N.). And the remedy (for the harmful effect; ed. S.N.) is to induce vomiting… tski causes diarrhea and makes urine abundant. And if you drink and vomit, it will relieve stomach congestion, expel mucus, and cleanse the stomach.”
In Palestine (the biblical lands of the “people of the gae” (the “people of the ae”), another name “people of Amalek”) and Armenia, ancient wine presses with depictions of representatives of the Armenoid race have been preserved. It should be added that on the ornaments and coins of ancient Armenia from the pre-Christian period, a bunch of grapes was depicted. These data complement and confirm the well-preserved wine storage cellars and remnants of wine materials used by the ancestors of the Armenians – the Urartians (Karmir-Blur, 7th century BC). Numerous, almost perfectly preserved material sources have also survived. For example, vessels – karases of various purposes, in Karmir-Blur, Shengavit (3rd millennium BC), Dvin, Garni, Tigranakert (Artsakh), and other regions of Armenia. A bas-relief depicting grape harvesting, from a later period, was discovered in Dvin (5th century). It should be noted that ancient Armenian karases, according to scientists, were of various sizes – from “small to large.” They could hold from several buckets to several barrels of wine.
Ancient Armenians primarily consumed dark red wine. For fermentation processes, young wine was poured into large, sulfur-smoked vessels (Urartian type – “karases,” with a capacity of about 1000 liters each). Later, Iranian-type containers, the so-called “merani,” also appeared. The vessels with wine were placed in special lower rooms (like cellars) or buried in the ground.
Sweet wine was obtained by suppressing fermentation, placing the wine containers in specially designated cold rooms. Wine was also infused with dried raisins of various sorts, extending the fermentation period to about 10-15 years. Cuneiform “labels” indicating the capacity and quality of the wine were attached to the vessels. If the wine was thick and very sweet, it was diluted with water.
Alongside wine, the Urartians also made beer from barley and millet. During the excavations of Karmir-Blur, a brewery was found with a huge vat carved from tuff, containing remnants of malted barley. According to Xenophon (5th century BC), beer and other beverages were brewed in Armenian villages. For brewing, Armenians used large elongated vessels. Great attention was paid to both jugs and barrels. Armenians used to say: “For wine, the whole life is in the barrel; as the barrel, so is the wine.”
Over time, a culture of drinking alcoholic beverages emerged (it included special rituals, the creation of special dishes, etc.). In addition, the versatile use of the “wine berry” began to take shape – medicinal, cosmetic, as well as sanitary and hygienic. With the invention of new drinks, various complex wines appeared. Medicinal wine was brewed in special metal containers with the addition of spices, sea salt, dill seeds, honey, almonds, and Armenian table clay “bolus.”
Ancient Armenians added spices or wild aromatic herbs, diluted honey, various juices, or syrups (later essences) to the wine. There was also the so-called “love” wine – “women’s pink,” with the addition of rose petals or wild rose, “sleep-inducing” – with the addition of peony petals or mint leaves, etc. Apparently, this is how “proto-cocktails” and the culture of medicinal wine drinking emerged, but more on that in the second part of the article.
Author: Natalia Sobol, historian of Armenian studies.
Comments on the publication:
(1) N. Prostoserdov is an honored scientist and engineer, doctor of biological sciences, professor, pianist, poet, composer. His main legacy is deep scientific and practical research in the field of winemaking, which is still very relevant today. As a result of N.P.’s activities in Armenia, Georgia and Crimea, he wrote more than 140 works. Since 1913, at the invitation of the Don Army leadership, N.P. worked on the Don (Novocherkassk). He organized an enochemical laboratory, which was later transformed into the All-Russian Research Institute of Viticulture and Winemaking. Prostoserdov N. “Dietary and medicinal properties of grape wine”, pp. 3,14,17,41. See also M. Gerasimov, T. Politov “Change in OV potential during various wine processing processes”.
(2) “The Armenoid race is a Near-Asian race, distinguished by some anthropologists as part of the large European race for Armenia, the adjacent part of Asia Minor, and Syria. The Armenoid race is characterized by a brachycephalic skull, a strong short neck, abundant beard growth in men, a convex bridge of the nose, and a flattened back of the head. Numerous historical discoveries and facts indicate that Armenia is an order of magnitude more ancient than we are accustomed to assume. In the scientific world, there is a very significant “Japhetic” concept (hyperdiffusionism), which determines the special role of the Armenoid race in world history. It is powerfully confirmed by numerous facts, excavations, sources, linguistic research (common monosyllabic homoforms of the archaic Grabar, the Mayan, Basque, Finno-Ugric languages and many others). Archaeologist F. Lushan voiced the term “Armenoid race”. And Australian scientist-anthropologist Sir (the title of Sir was granted to him by the English Queen for his outstanding contribution to historical science) Grafton Eliot Smith, since 1900, based on 10 years of scientific research at the Cairo School for the Study of Mummies, substantiated and confirmed it. He was supported by German scientist-archaeologist Baron von Oppenheim (excavations of Armenoid bas-reliefs in Tel Halaf, the upper reaches of the Khabur River, Palestine, Syria, Iran, Turkmenistan, etc.). In this area worked: I. Karst, R.A. Jayrazbhoya, D. Bennan. Russian scientists also wrote about the Armenoid race: A. Lopukhin (Explanatory Bible, 1904-1913), N. Marr, Yu. Knorozov, I. Orbeli and many others. European and American scientists: H. Bingham, G. T. Wilkins, M. Khanjan (USA), Z. Kosidovsky and many others, also pay much attention to this topic. And the Israeli scientist, B. Moishezon (a student of prof. Shafarevich) participated in many excavations in the territory of Israel and Palestine.
He writes that “the Armenoids constituted the aristocratic class of antiquity.” In his article, he quotes G. Smith: “… the Armenoid appearance… was found only among representatives of the (Egyptian – S.N.) aristocracy.” The Armenoids – aristocrats were the so-called “white settlers… more broad-boned, muscular, with a masculine appearance of a mixed dynastic race.” It was this class that played one of the central roles in the formation of the most ancient civilizations of the world,” which allows us to talk about “Armenoid settlement in prehistoric times.” Anthropologist G. Smith, studying the mummies of the IV dynasty (the area of the Great Pyramids in Giza), was amazed by the abundance of Caucasoid features in the remains of the deceased pharaohs. Smith’s colleague and associate, D.E. Darry, testified: “The builders of the pyramids belonged to a completely different race than the people whose descendants they have been considered until now … they certainly could not have come from the south (from Africa; S.N. note), since they did not have any Negroid features …”. Which is confirmed by leading scientists from Graward, Cambridge (scientific conferences on Armenian studies in 1997) and others. Moishezon B., see the article “Armenoids – the aristocracy of antiquity”, magazine “People and Earth”, Jerusalem; magazine “Noah”. Klimishin I. “Calendar and Chronology”, pp. 158-159. Kosidovsky Z. “When the Sun Was a God”, pp. 321-329. Shcherbakov V. “All About Atlantis”, pp. 36-39, 53, 81, 131, 132. Also, see the works of I. Donnelly, T. Heerdahl (“Expedition to “Ra” and others), M. Stingl, M. Stirling, and many others. See the author’s footnote about the Amalekites.
(3) Monte P. “Egypt of the Ramses”, p. 16.
(4) This tradition was further transferred to the coat of arms of the Armenian SSR – it depicted a bunch of grapes and a vine against the background of Mount Ararat. Wikipedia.
(5) The excavations of the Teishebaini fortress (one of the remote cities of Urartu) make a great impression. Wine halls were also found among the outbuildings. These are elongated rooms, in the earthen floor of which huge jugs are dug, their capacity is about 800 thousand liters each. About 400 such jugs were found. Excavations showed that 7 storerooms were dark and damp (since many lamps were found nearby) and only one was light – the eighth, on the second floor.
It contained sweet wines, which were subjected to solar processing according to ancient technology. Karases stood in orderly rows, and there was a passage between them. On the “shoulders” of the vessels, capacity signs were applied (the capacity was noted in measures of “akarki” – i.e. 240 liters, and “terusi” – 1/10 or 1/9 of “a-karki”). Most of the container markings were written in hieroglyphs, and some of them in cuneiform, but there are also double entries. During the excavations of the wine bins, a sufficient number of remains of grapes of various varieties, as well as raisins and sultanas were also found.
There was a special room for vessels near the two central storerooms, i.e. a warehouse for large red, polished jugs with one handle (and folded drinking bowls and plates with them). There were more than 1,300 vessels, of which more than a hundred were completely intact. Piotrovsky, “Karmir-Blur”, pp. 3-4. Muratsyan, “Georg Marzpetuni”, p. 372.
(6) Karases are ancient Armenian wine and beer jugs, reaching human height and even more. Armenia, Teishebaini citadel, 8th century BC. Piotrovsky, B. “Karmir-Blur”, pp. 8-9; illustrations 8, 11, 15, 62-67, 112.
(7) Aghayan, Ts. “Russia in the Fates of Armenians and Armenia”, p. 12.
(8) The prototype of modern balms and mulled wines. Since ancient times, the Armenians had many medicinal varieties of wine and wine-medicinal potions (“gini” – ancient Armenian) – bile and diuretic, “napit”, “mutam”, “mai el yanap”, “varakh”, “ca(h)na”, “tlavagar”, “gakhvay”, etc. In the medical-therapeutic arsenal there was a special medical “black wine” (“sharapi erahani” – ancient Armenian) – with herbs and roots of medicinal wine drinks, was in use, condensed, several types of wine, boiled down to 1/3 of the original volume – (“h)in gini”, “pukhtachavsh-gini” – ancient Armenian). The doctors-bzhkapets used special potions – herbs boiled in wine. For example, the root of coltsfoot boiled in wine helped expel the fetus and afterbirth in case of intrauterine death of the fetus, etc. Amasiatsi A. “Unnecessary for the Ignorant”, pp. 95-96; §407; p. 291 §§1818, 1819, p.462 §§3088, 3091, p. 495 §3319.
Sagokosov M. “On the issue of drinks”, p.32
Sources:
1) Abrahamyan A. “Manuscript treasures of Matenadaran, p. 82-92.
2) Amasiatsi A. “Unnecessary for the ignorant”, p., 6,39 p. 39; p.49 p. 107; p.95; p.221 p. 131;, p.297 p.1857; p.327 p. 2057; p.293, par. 1830.
3) TSB, vol. Sh, p.76.
7) Dulyan S., Aslanyan A. “Meet Armenia”, Yerevan, “Hayastan”, 1972, p.14, 90-92,118-119.
8) Klimishin I. “Calendar and Chronology”, pp. 158-159.
9) Kosidovsky Z. “When the Sun Was a God”, pp. 321-329.
10) Monte P. “Egypt of the Ramses”, USSR Academy of Sciences (“By traces of vanished civilizations”), M., “Science”, 1989, p. 16.
11) Moishezon B., see the article “Armenoids – the aristocracy of antiquity”, magazine “People and Earth”, Jerusalem, No. 1, 3, 1984,1985; magazine “Noah”.
13) Nikolov E., Nechev Ts. “On the plague epidemics on Bulgarian soil during the 15th-19th centuries”, p. 77.
14) Porshekyan H. “Oral folklore of the Armenians of Nor-Nakhichevan”, p. 13.
15) Prostoserdov “Dietary and medicinal properties of grape wine”, Novocherk., 1993, p.41, 44,48-49,54. 16) Piotrovsky B. “Karmir-Blur”, pp. 3-4 pp. 3-4, 8-9; illus. 8, 11, 15, 62-67, 112.
17) “Guidebook of the State Historical Museum of Armenia”, Academy of Sciences of Armenia .SSR, Yerevan, 1963, p.41.
19) Sagokosov M. “On the issue of drinks”, pp. 18,21,32.
20) Shaginyan Sh., Nazinyan A.I. “A kind word, that a spring day”, pp. 13-15.
21) Shcherbakov V. “All about Atlantis”, pp. 36-39, 53, 81, 131, 132.
Respondents:
- Vilik Babayan (Armenia).
- Rector of the Armenian Apostolic Church “Surb Astvatsatsin” (“Holy Mother of God”) Ter Anania (Babayan), Russia, Rostov Region, Bol’shiye Saly village).
