Tuesday, January 29, 2019

CAIRO, EGYPT—Live Science reports that archaeologists have unearthed a series of storage rooms in a 2,000-year-old winery complex near Egypt’s northern coast. Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said wine was probably kept in the rooms, which were constructed with thick mudbrick walls. Limestone slabs of different sizes were added to the walls of some of the chambers, perhaps as a way to cool the rooms and regulate the wine’s temperature. Kilns, pottery, and coins ranging in age from the time of Ptolemy I Soter, who ruled Egypt from 304 to 284 B.C., to the Islamic period were also recovered. Ayman Ashmawy, head of ancient Egyptian artifacts for the Ministry of Antiquities, said fragments of mosaic and painted wall at the site suggest there may be other buildings in the complex that have not been uncovered yet. To read about another recent discovery in Egypt, go to “Mummy Workshop.”