The styles of the jars in the Scorpion King's tomb were from a variety of groups in Southern Palestine, including the Gaza Strip region and the coastal plain of Israel; the Judean Hills; the Jordan Valley and the Transjordan region. None of the jars tested were made from Egyptian clay. The origins of the pots were determined using instrumental neutron activation analysis of the clay bodies—determining where the clay came from—using the archaeometry laboratory at the University of Missouri, and supported by traditional pottery style analysis.
Sites in the Levant which have produced pots of the same shapes and decoration styles, and are known to have yielded domesticated grape pits and berries, include 'En Besor near Gaza, Jericho in the southern Jordan Valley, Bab edh-Dhra' on the Dead Sea and Jawa in the northern Transjordan region. Interestingly, clay sealings on the jars were made with Nile clay.
McGovern and associates believe these jars were manufactured in various regions of the southern Levant, and probably filled with wine in those locations before being shipped to Egypt. The wine was opened and then resealed in Egypt before being deposited in the tomb.
Sources and Further Information
McGovern, Patrick E., Armen Mirzolan, and Gretchen R. Hall 2009 Ancient Egyptian herbal wines. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesin press.
McGovern, Patrick E. 2003. Wine of the Earliest Pharaohs, pp. 85-106 in Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture. Princeton University Press.
