Archaeology is about facts – it focuses on the interpretations of material remains of ancient societies. However, sometimes these remains, especially those produced from organic materials; simply do not survive through the millennia. Moreover, wineskins were such items. Known from numerous depictions of life and religion in the ancient world, we can never find them in museums. Well, we can find their modern reconstructions.
We can be pretty sure that they are the oldest form of transport containers for liquids – not limited only to the transport of wine, but most of all water, olive oil and dairy products. Its first mentions in connections with wine come from Ancient Greece wherein Bacchanalia, ritual parties dedicated to god Bacchus, goats were sacrificed and their skin was used for the production of wineskins that would conserve the wine. Later wineskins made it as proverbs into the Christian tradition – “New wine into old wineskin” is considered by most scholars as a parable of Jesus and his teaching in contrary to traditional Judaism.
