Persian wine, also called Mey () and Badeh (), is a cultural symbol and tradition in Iran (Persia), and has a significant presence in Persian mythology, Persian poetry and Persian miniatures. History Recent archaeological research has pushed back the date of the known origin of wine making in Persia far beyond that which writers earlier in the 20th century had envisaged. Excavations at the Godin Tepe site in the Zagros mountains (Badler, 1995; McGovern and Michel, 1995; McGovern, 2003), have revealed pottery vessels dating from c. 3100–2900 BC containing tartaric acid, almost certainly indicating the former presence of wine. Even earlier evidence was found at the site of Hajji Firuz Tepe, also in the Zagros mountains. Here, McGovern et al. (1996) used chemical analyses of the residue of a Neolithic jar dating from as early as 5400–5000 BC to indicate high levels of tartaric acid, again suggesting that the fluid contained therein had been made from grapes. Pre-Islamic period The modern historian Rudi Matthee explains that in Zoroastrianism wine was a symbol for liquid gold as well as the moving fire of the radiant sun. Therefore, wine held a ritual function in Zoroastrianism, being part of a liberation ritual, in which it substituted for blood. Matthee adds that the history of the Iranian elite of ancient and late antique Iran "could be written as the history of razm va bazm (fighting and feasting), with wine at the centre". Islamic period Wine drinking was prominent in Classical Islam, from Al-Andalus in the west to Khorasan in the east. The Iranian Saffarid and Samanid rulers, the first to look for autonomy from their Abbasid suzerains, were known, as Matthee explains, "for the gusto with which they and their entourage indulged in wine-drinking." The 11th-century Qabus-nama, written by Keikavus of the Ziyarid dynasty, explicitly records that the Quran prohibits wine consumption, yet also states advice (same goes for Nizam al-Mulk's Siyasatnama) on what the proper fashion is for drinking wine while also taking it for granted that wine will be served at feasts. The English traveller and writer Thomas Herbert wrote in 1627 about the difference between wine consumption of the Ottomans and Iranians. According to Herbert, the Ottomans, who, although were prohibited to drink wine by law, still drank it covertly. The Iranians on the other hand, Herbert asserted, since a long period of time, drunk wine openly and with excess. According