Keeping Up with the Demand for Oil? Reconsidering the Unique Oil Presses from Late Bronze Age IIB to Iron Age IIA in the Southern Levant

Abstract

This study discusses the unique installations, recently identified as oil presses, which consist of a round or rectangular basin with a collecting vat inside. Such installations appear in the southern Levant from Late Bronze Age II to Iron Age IIA. In light of the long history of olive-oil production in this region, the author submits that these installations were larger than the oil-making facilities of the previous periods, and were also the first presses to be constructed in buildings. They represent a new mode of olive-oil production, probably with the aim of making more oil in a more efficient way. It is also reasonable to assume that it was an increasing demand for olive oil that promoted their introduction. This study will propose a possible explanation of this phenomenon: Cultural and economic factors, such as influence from the Mediterranean, the Egyptian demand for olive oil, and the cessation of imports from the Aegean around 1200 BCE, which led to the demand for olive oil in the southern Levant in Late Bronze IIB, Iron Age I, and Iron Age IIA.

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