Vin og vann

Som vi har vært inne på er det mangt man kunne håpe arkeologene oppdaget, men det er også enkelte ting vi er heller nølende til å tro at de kommer til å oppdage, som f.eks. Noas ark.

Skepsisen er vel ikke akkurat borte, men fikk seg nok et ørlite dask på baugen når det kommer fram at arkeologene snakker om å ha funnet Noas ... vingård.

Robert Mondavi may have been one of the best-known vineyard operators in recent years, but Noah was the first. This is often overlooked in the shadow of Noah’s deluge-defying ark accomplishment, but the Bible states very clearly in Genesis 9 that, after the ark ran aground in the mountains of Ararat, “Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard” (Genesis 9:20), the wine from which unfortunately led to another of Noah’s more famous stories—of drunken exposure. And although many scholars would be tempted to dismiss claims of Noah’s original vineyard as lacking any historical merit, scientists are discovering evidence of ancient wine making in that very same region.

Nå er selvsagt ikke koblingen mer enn spill for mediagalleriet, men det er likevel litt fiffig å finne noe slik ikke mange mil unna det tyrkiske Ararat.

In a recent article in the Journal of Archaeological Science [Hans Barnard et al., “Chemical Evidence for Wine Production Around 4000 B.C.E. in the Late Chalcolithic Near Eastern Highlands,” Journal of Archaeological Science (2010],  archaeologists from a joint Armenian, American and Irish expedition announced the discovery of the earliest known wine-making operation in an Armenian cave near the southern border with Iran. This site, which lies about 60 miles from Turkey’s Mt. Ararat, the traditional site of the Biblical ark’s grounding, contained well-preserved ancient remains thanks to a dry, consistent temperature and a layer of sheep dung in the cave that formed a protective layer over the artifacts and organic remains.

I stedet for å spekulere over om vinklingen kan ha noen sammenheng med et behov for mer midler til å fortsette utgravningene, istemmer vi heller en aldri så liten sang som altså ikke bare handler om "sommeren" 2011.

En fremføring finnes ved å klikke på overskriften.

                  Wine and Water  

Old Noah he had an ostrich farm and fowls on the largest scale,
He ate his egg with a ladle in an egg-cup big as a pail,
And the soup he took was Elephant Soup and the fish he took was Whale,
But they all were small to the cellar he took when he set out to sail,
And Noah he often said to his wife when he sat down to dine,
"I don't care where the water goes if it doesn't get into the wine."

The cataract of the cliff of heaven fell blinding off the brink
As if it would wash the stars away as suds go down a sink,
The seven heavens came roaring down for the throats of hell to drink,
And Noah he cocked his eye and said, "It looks like rain, I think,
The water has drowned the Matterhorn as deep as a Mendip mine,
But I don't care where the water goes if it doesn't get into the wine."

But Noah he sinned, and we have sinned; on tipsy feet we trod,
Till a great big black teetotaller was sent to us for a rod,
And you can't get wine at a P.S.A., or chapel, or Eisteddfod,
For the Curse of Water has come again because of the wrath of God,
And water is on the Bishop's board and the Higher Thinker's shrine,
But I don't care where the water goes if it doesn't get into the wine.

G.K. Chesterton, The Flying Inn, 1914,