CNN —A 2,000-year-old Roman funerary urn unearthed in southern Spain has been shown to contain the oldest wine ever found still in liquid form. Daniel Cosano/Juan Manuel Román/Dolores Esquivel/Fernando Lafont/José Rafael Ruiz Arrebola“When the archaeologists opened the urn we almost froze,” he said. This was a big surprise, because wine normally evaporates quickly and is chemically unstable, Ruiz Arrebola said. The discovery of a gold ring and other valuable artifacts suggest it was built by a family of considerable wealth, Ruiz Arrebola said. Ruiz Arrebola now plans to try to work out which modern-day local wine it was most similar to, although there are hundreds to work through.

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Persons: José Rafael Ruiz Arrebola, Daniel Cosano, Juan Manuel Román, Dolores Esquivel, Fernando Lafont, José Rafael Ruiz Arrebola “, ”, Ruiz Arrebola, José Rafael Ruiz, Speyer Organizations: CNN, University of Cordoba, Archaeological Science Locations: Spain, Carmona, Speyer, Germany