SC Talk: November 4, Stephen Batiuk, Near-Eastern Studies, U of T “The History of Grapes and Winemaking: Prehistoric Times to the Present”
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November 4, 2020 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
SC Talk: November 4, Stephen Batiuk, Near-Eastern Studies, U of T “The History of Grapes and Winemaking: Prehistoric Times to the Present”
Contact and Chair: Bibhu Mohanty
Abstract:
Wine is one of the most commonly enjoyed and alcoholic beverages in the modern world. But what is the antiquity and history of this otherworldly drink? When and how was it first developed? How did it spread from its point of origin? Dr. Stephen Batiuk will show how new archaeological fieldwork and bio-molecular chemistry and genetics are helping unlock this story, pushing its origins back to the Neolithic period and to the region of Caucasia, modern Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and how one of our earliest and best-documented examples of an ancient migration probably led to the spread of wine and wine culture across the Ancient Near East, and then eventually across the rest of the Mediterranean World.
Bio:
Dr. Stephen Batiuk is Senior Research Associate and Lecturer with the Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, as well as co-Director of the Gadachrili Gora Regional Archaeological Project Expedition (GRAPE) in Georgia, the Director of Excavations for the Tayinat Archaeological Project in Turkey, and the Project Manager for the Computational Research on the Ancient Near East (CRANE) Project. He has excavated and surveyed in Ethiopia, France, Georgia, Israel, Romania, Turkey, and Canada. He holds his degrees from the University of Toronto (Ph.D.) and the University of Ottawa, and his areas of specialization include Near Eastern archaeology (particularly the Bronze and Irons Ages of Turkey, Syria and the Caucasus). His work focuses on the development of complex and urban societies in the Near East, and inter-regional interactions in the Bronze and Iron Ages, and the origins of viticulture and viniculture in the ancient Near Eastern World. Dr. Batiuk uses archaeological data, alongside GIS and remote sensing, geomorphology as well as ceramic petrography to investigate the interplay between settlement, land use and economy in the ancient world.
The link to register is https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=JsKqeAMvTUuQN7RtVsVSEKo-DHaj3xRAluk2q6EEM7NUOFJCRldIOElPSU9FUDRNNUdRMlpISzEwMS4uThe deadline to register is the Wednesday of the talk at 8:00am. The Zoom link will be sent to registrants only.