Archaeologists have made a stunning discovery in Carmona, southern Spain, uncovering a 2,000-year-old Roman funerary urn that contains the oldest wine still in liquid form.

The remarkable find was made during home renovations in 2019, and its contents were recently analyzed by scientists from the University of Cordoba, according to a report published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

The urn, initially thought to only hold cremated remains and burned ivory, was found to contain approximately 1.2 gallons of a reddish liquid. The discovery left the archaeological team in awe.

“When the archaeologists opened the urn, we almost froze. It was very surprising,” said the lead author of the study and expert in organic chemistry, Rafael Ruiz Arrebola, CNN reports.

Through chemical analysis, the team identified the liquid as wine — a significant revelation given wine’s propensity to evaporate and its chemical instability. Mr. Ruiz Arrebola explained that such preservation is rare, attributing it to a hermetic seal that somehow prevented evaporation, though the exact formation of the seal remains a mystery.

Further tests revealed the liquid to be white wine, determined by the absence of syringic acid, which is found only in red wines. Interestingly, the wine’s mineral composition closely resembles that of modern fino wines from the same region.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery,” Mr. Ruiz Arrebola said. “We were very fortunate to find it and analyze it.”