- Patrick McGovern is the Scientific Director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Project for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, where he is also an Adjunct Professor of Anthropology. In the popular imagination, he is known as the "Indiana Jones of Ancient Ales, Wines, and Extreme Beverages." Read more
Caption: “Dr. Pat” in the Lower Egyptian Gallery of the Penn Museum, with the largest sphinx in the Western hemisphere to his side and columns of the 13th c. B.C. Merenptah palace behind him. Photo by Alison Dunlap.
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New Discovery!: Earliest Known Eurasian Grape Wine
In the News An 8,000-Year-Old Vintage! Penn Museum Researcher Confirms Earliest Known Evidence of Grape Wine and Viticulture in the World Penn Museum researcher Dr. Patrick McGovern, Scientific Director of […]
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Lectures and Tastings
Jan. 15, 2020 (Wednesday), 5:30-7 PM: “Ancient Brews: Rediscovered and Re-created,” MindCORE, Penn Museum, Philadelphia Oct. 28, 2019 (Monday): lecture (“Georgia: Cradle of Viniculture”) and panel discussion at Georgian wine […]
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Intoxicating: The Science of Alcohol
Alcohol or ethanol has long perplexed our species. Wherever we look in the ancient or modern world, humans have shown remarkable ingenuity in […]
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Beginning of Winemaking in France
New Evidence on Origins of Winemaking in France New BIOMOLECULAR aRCHAEOLOGICAL Evidence Points to the Beginnings of Viniculture in France * * * 9,000 Year Old Ancient Near Eastern “Wine […]
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New Biomolecular Archaeological Evidence for Nordic “Grog,” Expansion of Wine Trade, Discovered in Ancient Scandinavia
Discovery Highlights Innovative and Complex Fermented Beverages of Northernmost Europe in the Bronze and Iron Ages Philadelphia, PA 2014—Winters in Scandinavia were long and cold in the Bronze and Iron […]
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Dig, Drink, and Be Merry
In the lab, a flask of coffee-colored liquid bubbles on a hot plate. It contains tiny fragments from an ancient Etruscan amphora found at the French dig McGovern had just […]