"Amurca/ἀμόργη: A Semitic Loanword?" Pages 125-28 in Cultural Contact and Appropriation in the Axial-Age Mediterranean World. A Periplos. Ed. B. Halpern and K. S. Sacks (Brill, 2017) (original) (raw)
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OLIVE OIL IN SOUTHERN LEVANT: RISE AND FALL OF AN ECONOMY IN THE EARLY BRONZE AGE
E. Gallo (ed.), Conceptualizing Urban Experiences: Tell es-Sultan and Tall al-Ḥammām Early Bronze cities across the Jordan. Proceedings of a workshop held in Palermo, G. Whitaker Foundation, June 19th 2017 (Rome «La Sapienza» Studies on the Archaeology of Palestine & Transjordan, 13) Rome, 2019
During the Early Bronze Age olive tree cultivation begins to be practiced and it comes to create complex production systems and economic relations, whose management, closely related to the environment and the climate of the Southern Levant, was one of the achievements of Palestinian urbanism.
OLIVE-OIL PRODUCTION IN ISRAEL DURING THE BIBLICAL PERIOD
E Olive Oil in Antiquity, Israel and Neighboring Countries, from the Neolithic to the Early Arab Period, Conference University of Haifa, Israel Oil Industry Museum, Dagon Museum , 1987
Olive-oil manufacture became a mass-production industry during the Israelite period (IA II). This industrial peak seems to have had its roots in much earlier times. According to historical sources, olive oil was one of the three major agricultural branches upon which the economy of the land of Israel was based in ancient times. From an early stage, oil became an export item, in addition to meeting the demands of the population in the country, and its importance increased continuously. Thus, the investigation of the oil industry can add to our understanding of not only the ancient economy but also the different cultural regions of the country: their international contacts (Franke 1984: 204217), their agrarian and social structure, and the geopolitical relations are prevalent in the country during antiquity.
Olive and Olive Oil Production in Ancient Jordan: Contextualizing the Evidence"
Jordan -as a part of the eastern Mediterranean region-played over the ages a vital role in understanding the history of olive cultivation and oil production. The archaeological contexts of different sites in the country shed light on the development of olive oil technology, and its socio-economic contexts. In this paper, a diachronic perspective will be presented to evaluate the techniques that were used in oil production and the changing scale of oil production from domestic to industrial one. Such a changing pattern of production sheds light on the exchange and trade system of olive oil in Jordan throughout antiquity.
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, 2013
This article documents an oil press discovered in the southern part of the Crusader town of Arsur (Area E), dating to the twelfth century CE. To date, no olive press from the Crusader period, excavated in systematic-scientific excavations, has been published in full. The article also discusses the olive oil industry in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem based on the available archaeological findings published thus far. It includes our current understanding of the development of olive oil production technology in the Holy Land and the role of the Crusader interlude as bridging the period between large-scaled and sophisticated Byzantine oil presses with those of late Ottoman (pre-modern) industry, which were smaller and simpler.
Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2024
The analysis of olive oil and wine production in the Roman world has seen increasing attention over the last two decades—a product of rapidly growing archaeological datasets and an improved ability to discern the remains of facilities and equipment, but also of new scientific approaches and increased scholarly interest in aspects of agriculture, lifeways and non-elite daily life. This book fits within a trajectory of site-based or regional studies on presses and associated infrastructure (cf. Waliszewski 2014; Papi and Bigi 2015; Dodd 2020, 2022; Peña Cervantes 2023; Van Limbergen et al. 2024) and seeks to fill a substantial lacuna that has long beset the region of Cyrenaica. It thus not only builds up our understanding of Cyrenaica’s own landscape and economy in the “mid to late Roman periods”, but also makes a crucial contribution to the rising quantity of pan-Mediterranean evidence, including typologies and technologies related to oil and wine production.
The history of olive cultivation in the southern Levant
Frontiers in Plant Science, 2023
The olive tree (Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea var. europaea) is one of the most important crops across the Mediterranean, particularly the southern Levant. Its regional economic importance dates at least to the Early Bronze Age (~3600 BCE) and its cultivation contributed significantly to the culture and heritage of ancient civilizations in the region. In the southern Levant, pollen, pits and wood remains of wild olives (O. europaea subsp. europaea var. sylvestris) has been found in Middle Pleistocene sediments dating to approximately 780 kya, and are present in numerous palynological sequences throughout the Pleistocene and into the Holocene. Archeological evidence indicates the olive oil production from at least the Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic transition (~7600-7000 BP), and clear evidence for cultivation by, 7000 BP. It is hypothesized that olive cultivation began through the selection of local genotypes of the wild var. sylvestris. Local populations of naturally growing trees today have thus been considered wild relatives of the olive. However, millennia of cultivation raises questions about whether genuine populations of var. sylvestris remain in the region. Ancient olive landraces might thus represent an ancient genetic stock closer to the ancestor gene pool. This review summarizes the evidence supporting the theory that olives were first cultivated in the southern Levant and reviews our genetic work characterizing local ancient cultivars. The significance and importance of old cultivars and wild populations are discussed, given the immediate need to adapt agricultural practices and crops to environmental degradation and global climate change.
A Note on Olive Oil Production in Iron Age Philistia: Pressing the consensus
Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 2020
In this paper we discuss two aspects of olive production in Philistia and the Shephelah during the Iron Age. Previous studies suggested that olive oil production became important in this region only in the 8th century BCE centred at Tel Miqne-Ekron, and that the Kingdom of Judah was not involved in the production of olive oil in this region. Recent finds, at Tel Beth Shemesh and at Tell es-Safi/Gath, indicate that this narrative is in need of change. On the one hand, finds from Tell es-Safi/Gath show that production of olive oil was a central aspect in the agricultural production in this region already during the Iron I and Iron IIA. On the other hand, recent finds at Tel Beth Shemesh show that in the 7th century, the Kingdom of Judah was involved in the production of olive oil in the eastern Shephelah.