They were discovered by archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority in the fields of Kibbutz Netzer Sereni, near a building where the troops were garrisoned.

The excavation was carried out as part of road building.

Near the bottles, 250,000-year-old flint tools from the Middle Paleolithic period were also discovered.

The excavation's director, Ron Toueg, said the find offers a rare glimpse into the soldiers' leisure activities.

"We have been able to glimpse an unwritten part of history and to reconstruct for the first time the everyday life and leisure of the soldiers," he said.

"We exposed a building, which was apparently the foundations of a barracks. This structure was used for agricultural purposes in the Ottoman period, and during the First World War the British converted it for military use. Soldiers were housed in it."

Inside the building, Mr Toueg added, researchers also discovered dozens of uniform buttons, belt buckles and parts of riding equipment.

He noted that the building had caught fire and collapsed.

"We were surprised to discover that along with broken crockery and cutlery, there was an enormous number of soft drink and liquor bottles," said Mr Toueg.

"In fact, about 70 per cent of the waste that was discarded in a refuse pit were liquor bottles.

"It seems that the soldiers took advantage of the respite given to them to release the tension by frequently drinking alcohol."