A depas goblet excavated from the ruins of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s University of TbingenIn the first book of the Iliad, the god Hephaestus passes a double goblet around at a banquet on Mount Olympus. He poured the drink, going from right to left, for all the other gods, drawing off sweet nectar from the mixing bowl, the epic poem states.For those who enjoy libations from goblets or glasses, the rowdy evening that ensues should sound familiar. Their laughter broke out irrepressibly, Homer writes. No ones heart went unsatisfied.The Iliadis, of course, a work of mythology. But that doesnt mean all the practices, people and places depicted in the poem are fully fictive.The drinking vessel that Hephaestus passes around, for instance, is often identified as the depas amphikypellon, or depas goblet, a well-known relic among archaeologists that features a slender neck and two large handles. Schliemann's haul from Troy, on view at the Neues Museum in Berlin Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsBut whether the ancient residents of Troy truly sipped wine out of these goblets has long been consigned to the realm of speculation.Now, for the first time, researchers have identified chemical residues associated with wine in goblets unearthed at Hisarlik, the Turkish name for a site believed to be the ancient city immortalized in Homers epic, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Archaeology. Heinrich Schliemann, a German businessman and amateur archaeologist with a penchant for embellishment, discovered and haphazardly excavated the site in the 1870s, wrote Smithsonian magazines Meilan Solly in 2022.Schliemann already conjectured that the depas goblet was passed around at celebrationsjust as described in the Iliad, says Stephan Blum, an archaeologist at Germanys University of Tbingen and a co-author of the study, in a statement. But, characteristic of Schliemanns assertions, there was little hard evidence to back up his sweeping claims.Archaeologists at Troy have unearthed more than 100 depas goblets dated to between 2500 and 2000 B.C.E. They tend to measure between 5 and 15 inches tall and can contain up to a liter of liquid, according to the statement. A depas goblet in situ at Troy University of TbingenFor the study, the researchers drilled two-gram samples out of the inner walls of two vessel fragments excavated by Schliemann. Then, they heated the samples to more than 700 degrees Fahrenheit. Using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to isolate compounds in the mixture, the researchers identified the presence of succinic and pyruvic acids. Both are associated with alcoholic fermentation.The evidence of succinic and pyruvic acids was conclusive: They only occur when grape juice ferments, says Maxime Rageot, a biomolecular archaeologist at Germanys University of Bonn, in the statement. So now we can state with confidence that wine was actually drunk from the depas goblets and not just grape juice.As Popular Sciences Andrew Paul points out, however, these goblets werent everyday items.Schliemann discovered his astonishing cache of goblets among a cache of hundreds of objects made of gold, silver, copper and electrum, a mixture of precious metals, wrote Joshua Hammer for Smithsonian in 2022. He called the hoard Priams Treasure after the mythical Trojan king Priam. Although the treasure was later dated to about 1,000 years before the Trojan War took place in the 12th or 13th century B.C.E., it offered evidence of the stratification of social classes in Troy, raising questions about who had access to wine in ancient times.Did ancient Troy really exist? - Einav Zamir DembinWatch on To determine if wine was only the drink of Troys elitesand its godsthe researchers conducted similar chemical tests with ordinary cups that were found in the outer settlement of Troy and therefore outside the citadel, Blum explains in the statement.Common vessels, the team discovered, contained the same chemical signatures of wine. It is clear that wine was an everyday drink for the common people, too, Blum adds.These results upend longstanding assumptions that wine was an elite beverage during the third millennium B.C.E. Like grapes on the vine, further research into the practices of wine drinking at other sites across the ancient world promises to be fruitful.Schliemann was right: The depas amphikypellon was certainly used for wine consumption, writes Blum for the Conversation. Whether this was tied to religious practices, rituals and public banqueting, or simply drinking wine as part of everyday life remains uncertain.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Alcohol, Ancient Civilizations, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Archaeology, Chemistry, Cool Finds, Legend, Myth, Turkey, Wine