The Development of Grape Cultivation and Winemaking in Anatolia in Light of Archaeological Data and Its Reflection in Greek Culture

Grapes, which emerged as Earth's surface took shape following the stages through which the world has passed, have been utilized by humans since the earliest times. Different views have been put forward regarding the possible homeland of this wild grape, which was exploited before the transition to settled life. According to these views, Anatolia, the North Caucasus and the surroundings of the Zagros Mountains stand out as the proposed centers of origin for the wild grape. One of the earliest archaeological data on this subject was recovered at Körtik Tepe in the Diyarbakır region. The people of Anatolia, who adopted a sedentary lifestyle during the Neolithic Period, domesticated the wild grape in their environment for the first time during this process. Wine, produced by the spontaneous fermentation of grape juice held in vessels that began to be manufactured in abundance when pottery-making started during the advanced Neolithic stage, may likewise have emerged in Anatolia in this period. While archaeological evidence on wine production is increasing for the Late Neolithic Period, finds from settlement sites in Western Iran are particularly noteworthy. In Mesopotamia and Egypt, wine has been documented from the 3rd millennium BCE onwards, and substantial information on its production and trade is available. In Anatolia, grape and wine production, which began in the Neolithic Period, continued steadily in subsequent periods, with the importance of wine becoming particularly prominent during the Hittite era. It is understood that the Greeks, who expanded eastward during the 8th-century-BC colonization period, transferred the viticulture and winemaking they encountered in this geography into their own culture through Dionysus. This archaeological continuity constitutes one of the strongest foundations of present-day Turkish viticulture in terms of both quantity and diversity. Türkiye ranks among the world's top five to six countries with approximately 417,000 hectares of vineyard area and around 4.2 million tons of grape production. Half of the production is used as table grapes, one-third as dried grapes, and the remainder for wine and must. In dried-grape exports, Türkiye alone accounts for approximately one-third of the global market. This long-standing viticultural tradition has generated an inventory of more than 1,200 grape varieties; however, only fifty to sixty of them are grown commercially at scale. Türkiye's first and largest grapevine genebank, located at the Tekirdağ Viticulture Research Institute, currently conserves more than 1,439 varieties and genotypes. At the regional level, Boğazkere and Öküzgözü in Southeastern Anatolia; Bornova Misketi in the Aegean; Papazkarası and Adakarası in Thrace; Yapıncak along the Marmara coast; Emir in the Central Black Sea; Dimrit, also known as Nevşehir üzümü, in Cappadocia; and Kalecik Karası and Narince in Central Anatolia are the principal indigenous wine cultivars adapted to the climatic and edaphic conditions of their respective regions. In this study, viticulture and winemaking that emerged in Anatolia and developed in Mesopotamia are examined in the light of archaeological evidence, together with their reflections on Greek society, from socio-economic structure to belief and architecture.