April 14, 2004

Meal fit for a king

Wit and Wine exhibit features funerary feast prepared by restaurant

By
Herald staff writer

      A meal fit for a king - King Midas, in fact - will top off the evening when the Dennos Museum Center presents a program by Dr. Patrick McGovern on the origins of winemaking in the ancient world.
      In association with the exhibition "Wit and Wine: A New Look at Ancient Iranian Ceramics," the Dennos Museum Center at Northwestern Michigan College will present a program featuring McGovern, a senior research scientist in the Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania. McGovern will speak at 3 p.m., Sunday. The Wit and Wine exhibit is on display now through September 5 at the museum.
      The author of "Ancient Wine: The Scientific Search for the Origins of Viniculture" and eight other books on archaeology and archaeological science, McGovern has pioneered the emerging field of biomolecular archaeology.
      Forty years after the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology discovered the tomb of King Midas in central Turkey, Dr. McGovern and his research team identified specific organic compounds in the drinking and eating vessels that had been left behind.
      The exhibit of Iranian ceramics, now on display at the Dennos, was likely to have held similar libations. The exhibit features 45 pieces illustrating the 5,000 year tradition of jugs, jars and beakers used to hold and pour liquids, especially wine.
      The Midas tomb funerary feast was analyzed by McGovern's team and reconstructed in minute detail. The King Midas Dinner is a contemporary reconstruction of the meal for the funeral of the legendary King.
      The King Midas dinner, featuring Turkish mezze salad, dried apricots with nutty sheepsmilk cheese, caramelized fennel tarts, chicken currant dolmades and a spicy fire-roasted lamb with lentil stew, will be served at 6:30 p.m. at 310 Restaurant in Traverse City. Each course will be paired with a Leelanau peninsula wine that has been specially bottled in conjunction with the Wit and Wine exhibition.
      Admission to the 3 p.m. program is included with museum admission. Tickets to the dinner can be purchased by calling the museum at 995-1055. Advance reservations are required. Prices for the dinner are $50, or $75 with wine pairings. Proceeds from this dinner benefit the Dennos Museum Center.