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On Some Karian and Hellenic Oil-Presses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

W. R. Paton  and
J. L. Myres
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Extract

This paper is an attempt to interpret certain stones, which have come to light recently on ancient sites in Karia, as parts of ancient oil-presses, on the ground that they are well adapted to fulfil certain purposes which are still essential to the modern native process of oil extraction in that part of Asia Minor and in the adjacent islands. The inference is that the ancient process closely resembled the modern in the principal features which are recounted below.

The Modern Method of extracting olive oil consists of the two processes of grinding and pressing.

In the most primitive mode of grinding which is still in use, the olives are crushed either on a flat stone by a roller, or in a stone trough by a millstone rolling on its edge. In more modern grinders two mill-stones are used, which revolve in a circular trough, as in the grinding of kaolin or cement. The process of grinding seems never to have varied, except as regards the power which is employed; horses having been substituted for men, and steam for horses. In Algeria and Tripoli the circular trough goes back at least to Roman times.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 18 , November 1898 , pp. 209 - 217
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1898

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References

page 209 note 1 E.g. in the Tripolitan oil-mills described below, p. 215.

page 209 note 2 For Algeria: cf. Tissot, , ĽAfrique Romaine I. p. 288Google Scholar: A Tripolitan example is published as a ‘laver’ by Cowper, H. Swainson, Antiquary, Feb. 1896Google Scholar. =Hill of the Graces (1897), p. 151.

page 210 note 1 Cf. Micah vi. 15; Benzinger, , Hebräische Archäologie, p. 212Google Scholar; Tristram, , The Land and the Book, p. 207Google Scholar; and for the more elaborate processes now in use in Palestine, Tristram, l.c. p. 338–9.

page 211 note 1 W. R. P. writes from Kalymnos (31 Oct. 1896) that even this example has been converted into a more modern type.

page 211 note 2 J.H.S. xvi. Pl. X.

page 214 note 1 We know no special reason why these presses are so frequently associated with fortified sites. That at Emporiὸ, as the plan shows, can hardly have been a mere place of residence.

page 215 note 1 Cf. the even ruder, and spoutless troughs, figured in Prof.Flinders Petrie, Tell-el-Hesy, p. 55Google Scholar (from Somerah), p. 58 (from Wady Dómeh); and described by him as washing troughs.

page 217 note 1 Antiquary, Feb. 1896. =Hill of the Graces (1897), p. 150.