MEGALITHIC MADNESS AND MEASUREMENT. OR HOW MANY OLIVES COULD AN OLIVE PRESS PRESS?

Summary. Nineteenth century explorers and travellers in north-west Libya were intrigued by the hundreds of well-preserved stone structures which they took to be prehistoric megaliths of ritual significance. H.S. Cowper made a particular study of them in this belief, measuring, sketching and photographing quite a number of the monuments. The admirably meticulous character of his work was undone by his fanciful interpretation and it was soon revealed that the stone structures were, in fact, parts of Roman olive presses.
This article, however, considers the lasting importance of Cowper's work in the context of a detailed discussion of the processing capacity of ancient olive presses (that is what quantity of olives comprised a single press load and how much olive oil was likely to be yielded). Comparison with literary and ethnographic evidence suggests that the Tripolitanian presses had a large potential capacity. An order of magnitude figure of c. 9–10,000 kg is proposed for the annual output of olive oil from one of these large presses.     

THE OLIVE IN THE PREHISTORIC AEGEAN: THE EVIDENCE FOR DOMESTICATION IN THE EARLY BRONZE AGE

Summary. In 1972 Colin Renfrew suggested that the rise of Mycenaean civilization may have been made possible by the development of a polycultural triad of wheat, vine and olive in the Early Bronze Age. A careful examination of the botanical and archaeological evidence for the domestication of the olive lends little support to this aspect of the thesis. The palynological evidence from various points in Greece is inconclusive, but for most areas it would seem to suggest that the intensive cultivation of olive began in the Late Bronze Age or even later.
No conclusive archaeological evidence for processing or storage of olive oil exists for any period in the Bronze Age. The question of when olive domestication took place must remain unanswered until more data are available from Early and Middle Bronze Age contexts and more conclusive botanical data have been collected.     

Olive oil production on bronze age Crete: nutritional properties, processing methods and storage life of Minoan olive oil

Archaeological studies on olive oil produced in Crete in the Bronze Age focus primarily on aspects such as the period when olive cultivation became widespread, the number of olive trees cultivated, or the quantity of oil stored in the Minoan palaces. Olive oil is however an organic substance, a perishable product, the nutritional and storage properties of which are determined by environmental, agronomic, processing and storage conditions. In this paper archaeological, environmental and biochemical evidence is combined to present a comprehensive picture of the potential quality, nutritional and storage properties of Minoan olive oil. The comparative evidence presented suggests that Minoan olive oil was equal in quality to the cold-pressed virgin olive oils produced today, and as such, the oil was nutritionally important in the Bronze Age and a valuable trade commodity.     

The Economics of Saltfish Production in the Aegean During the Classical and Hellenistic Periods

Despite a dearth of literary and archaeological evidence for the commercial production of salted fish or fish sauces in the Aegean during the Classical and Hellenistic periods it has been argued, based on a variety of proximate data, that such production must have been common. This paper suggests those arguments are probably wrong. It argues first that the absence of archaeological evidence for regional Aegean production and trade is itself not necessarily meaningful since a similar absence exists for the Black Sea region during the Classical and Hellenistic periods when commercial production and trade is otherwise well attested; in the Black Sea the most common varieties of saltfish were produced without the use of permanent installations such as salting vats and shipped not in amphoras but in large baskets, thereby leaving little trace in the archaeological record. Evidence for regional Aegean production is also, however, largely absent from the literary and epigraphic sources where a number of key pieces of evidence have been misinterpreted. The evidence suggests instead that commercial catches even of species well suited for preservation would have been marketed fresh. This can be explained in part by the fact that in the Aegean different environmental constraints obtained. More importantly, institutional factors often would have made the commercial production and trade of salted fish and fish sauces uneconomical. Even where local conditions of glut periodically prevailed the possibility of household production may have prevented the development of commercial production on any meaningful scale.     

‘Handle with care’: literature,archaeology, slavery

This article examines the relationship between literary and bioarchaeological approaches to slavery, and investigates how the methods and priorities of each discipline might inform each other in understanding what it was like to be enslaved. Both bioarchaeologists and creative writers have attempted to access the inner lives of enslaved people, yet there has been little interaction between them. This paper offers an account of a research project which brought together a literary scholar, two archaeological scientists and seven creative writers to explore how writing might not only communicate a history understood through archaeological evidence, but could itself inform approaches to that evidence. We discuss two key themes which emerged from the project: Conversation and Caring. These themes were crucial to the interdisciplinary process, as it was only through attention to our relationships with each other that we could begin to reassess the nature of material in each of our disciplines.     

WINE, OIL AND THE DIALECTICS OF POWER IN BRONZE AGE CRETE: A REVIEW OF THE EVIDENCE

'Mediterranean polyculture'(the systematic exploitation of olives and vines in addition to cereals from the beginning of the Bronze Age) has been considered as one of the main factors which led to the development of palatial institutions in Bronze Age Crete and mainland Greece. This paper reviews all the available, direct archaeological evidence for olive and vine exploitation and oil and wine production and use from Bronze Age Crete (microbotanical, macrobotanical, artefactual, epigraphic), discussing at the same time their taphonomic, analytical and interpretative problems. It is suggested that, at present, there is no reliable direct archaeological evidence to substantiate the 'Mediterranean polyculture'model. More significantly, research on wine and oil, if disconnected from the discourse of subsistence and the cultural-evolutionary models such as that of subsistence-redistribution and viewed within the framework of the anthropology of consumption, can more fruitfully illuminate important issues related to the dialects of power such as establishment and legitimation of authority, exploitation of labour and factional competition.     

Experiencing Ancient Buildings from a 3D GIS Perspective: a Case Drawn from the Swedish Pompeii Project

In recent times, archaeological documentation strategies have been considerably improved by the use of advanced 3D acquisition systems. Laser scanning, photogrammetry and computer vision techniques provide archaeologists with new opportunities to investigate and document the archaeological record. In spite of this, the amount of data collected and the geometrical complexity of the models resulting from such acquisition processes have always prevented their systematic integration into a geographic information systems (GIS) environment. Recent technological advances occurred in the visualization of 3D contents, led us to overcome the aforementioned limitations and set up a work pipeline in which was possible to put the 3D models not only in the context of data visualization but also in the frame of spatial analysis. The case study described is a part of the Swedish Pompeii Project, a research and fieldwork activity started in 2000 with the purpose of recording and investigating an entire Pompeian city block, Insula V 1. As an additional part of the research, a laser scanning acquisition campaign was conducted in the last few years. The resulting models were thus meant to be used to develop further research lines: Among these, a 3D GIS system was expected to be set up with the purpose to (i) collect in the same geo-referenced environment, different typologies of documentation gathered in the context of the Swedish Pompeii Project; (ii) inter-connect 3D models with the project website; (iii) use the third dimension as a further analytical field of investigation, in the form of spatial analysis and cognitive simulation.     

Redressing the balance — an archaeological evaluation of North Yorkshire's coastal alum industry

Abstract

Recent acquisitions of coastline by the National Trust in North Yorkshire and Cleveland have included important archaeological evidence of North Yorkshire's former alum industry. Owing to its remote marginal location this evidence has been little studied and there has previously been a bias towards the study of documentary sources as a means of understanding the alum industry. The archaeology of the alum industry is seriously threatened by relentless coastal erosion and there is an urgent need to record this evidence and thus redress this imbalance. The Yorkshire Region of the National Trust owns the partial remains of three important alum sites and the results of the detailed archaeological evaluation of these sites are presented. The archaeological implications of the Trust's continuing acquisition of threatened coastline are also considered.     

Ancient technology and computer aided design: olive oil production in southern Spain

Abstract

Until the twentieth century, the two most widely used technologies for extracting oil from olives were the tower press and the beam press. Although many examples still exist, this paper is the first to discuss either press from the point of view of engineering. Working from sketches, photographs and measurements obtained from exhibits in the Museo de la Cultura del Aceite (Museum of Oil History) in Hacienda 'La Laguna', Jaén, Andalucia, Spain, the presses have been modelled using computer aided design techniques. Computer animation has also been employed to establish how the presses worked.     

Bone preservation in human remains from the Terme del Sarno at Pompeii using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy

Archaeological bone can show marked and complex alterations depending on the environment in which it was buried. In this study, the state of preservation of 27 femurs recovered from the archaeological site of Pompeii was evaluated by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Most of the bone samples, prepared by the grinding method, showed good histological preservation, although they were characterized by microfissures (microcracking). Nine bone samples showed different states of histological preservation, including worst preservation (two femurs), due to diagenetic processes. Cryostat bone sections stained with thionin or 4′,6′-diamidino-phenylindole (DAPI) revealed the persistence of DNA within some osteocyte lacunae. Scanning electron microscopy analysis showed that ultrastructural characters, such as lamellae and collagen fibres, are recognizable only in unaltered bone. Our results reveal that most Pompeian samples are well preserved since they have a bone microstructure virtually indistinguishable from that of fresh bone. In methodological terms, although each of the various morphological methods used contributes information, histological and histochemical analyses are the most informative for studying the preservation state of bone and allow for rapid essential screening of archaeological bone.     

Finding millet in the Roman world

Examining the evidence for millet in the Roman empire, during the period, circa 753 bc–610 ad, presents a number of challenges: a handful of scant mentions in the ancient surviving agrarian texts, only a few fortuitous preserved archaeological finds and limited archaeobotanical and isotopic evidence. Ancient agrarian texts note millet’s ecological preferences and multiple uses. Recent archaeobotanical and isotopic evidence has shown that millet was being used throughout the Roman period. The compiled data suggests that millet consumption was a more complex issue than the ancient sources alone would lead one to believe. Using the recent archaeobotanical study of Insula VI.I from the city of Pompeii, as a case study, the status and role of millet in the Roman world is examined and placed within its economic, cultural and social background across time and space in the Roman world.     

Electric and magnetic tomographic approach for the geophysical investigation of an unexplored area in the archaeological site of Pompeii (Southern Italy)

The joint application of electric and magnetic techniques for near-surface exploration represents a very useful tool for archaeological investigation and can provide a quantitative contribution to describe the spatial distribution of buried objects. In this work we show a new advanced tomographic approach, based on the parallel inversion of magnetic and electric observed data, aimed at the reconstruction of the subsoil of a still unexplored area of the archaeological site of Pompeii (Southern Italy). The survey was performed in collaboration with Pompeii's Archaeological Commission. The comparison between the results obtained from the tomographic inversions of both electrical and magnetic data was carried out in terms of the data inversions, which allowed us to obtain information about the location of the buried geophysical sources in the investigated subsoil. The results obtained seem to be in a good agreement, both for the position of the geophysical sources and for their dimensions.     

Dual Energy Computed Tomography for the Non‐destructive Analysis of Ancient Ceramics

Ceramics are usually the most common artefact found on any ancient archaeological site. Compositional analysis of this pottery, and characterization of the clay fabrics from which they are made, has the potential to pinpoint sources of manufacture as well as identify trade routes and consumption patterns in the ancient world. Currently, most analytical techniques require the partial or total destruction of the ceramic sample. This research investigates the use of dual energy computed tomography (DECT) to analyse Black Gloss and Vesuvian Sigillata from Pompeii. The results indicate that DECT may be a viable adjunct or alternative to conventional analytical techniques. Importantly, unlike traditional methods, DECT is totally non‐destructive, a highly significant factor when analysing irreplaceable artefacts.     

Plant remains from Roman period town of Obulco (today Porcuna) in Andalusia (Spain)—distribution and domestication of olive in the west Mediterranean region

The aim of this work is (1) to identify the key characteristics of agriculture and the role of olive in Porcuna (Andalusia) of Roman period and (2) to derive a conclusion about the origin of cultivated olive. The study of the literature showed that the olive is one of the most esteemed fruit species in the Classical Mediterranean world and is considered to have been domesticated first in Levant region. The signs of cultivation appear since the Neolithic. The authors analysed 18 samples from archaeological sites. Sorting and identification were carried out using a binocular microscope with the help of comparative collection of seeds/fruits and identification atlases (Digital Seed Atlas of the Netherlands: Cappers et al. 2006). A total number of 19,616 remains was studied. The remains belong to groups of fruit trees, cereals, pulses and synanthropic plants. The cultivated species were used for domestic purposes. The cereals, pulses and mesocarps of the fruits served as food. Important characteristic trait was the overrepresentation of olives. The authors give a summary of the development that led to the cultivation and domestication of the olive tree and to reconstruct its early diffusion using different sources of information, such as archaeobotanical analysis, archaeological data and genetical studies. As a result, a better understanding of the domestication and use of olive on a Mediterranean scale is given. This study also discusses cultivated and synanthropic species in Roman settlements on the Iberian Peninsula.     

3D reality-based artefact models for the management of archaeological sites using 3D Gis: a framework starting from the case study of the Pompeii Archaeological area

This work describes the procedures, the different techniques and the pipeline used for creating a digital framework that should assist the Superintendence of Pompeii in the digital reconstruction, classification, management and visualisation of archaeological finds inside an advanced 3D web-based repository of reality-based data. Specific topics have been focused on the quality assessment procedures adopted to ensure consistency and reliability of data throughout the whole 3D models acquisition and pipeline creation, as well as on the particular semantic reality-based structure adopted to develop an information system into a knowledge one. The main purposes of our framework have been the usage of 3D digital models as a restitution of the real object and as a metaphor for navigating through the data; 3D models were used as archaeological cognitive systems and developed as a collection of structured objects, identified through a precise terminology that allows to easily extend the concept of 2D GIS to 3D GIS. In addition, the system was developed as a scalable application that allows the use of the same database by different users, simply filtering the data according to the specific requirements, and can operate both as standalone and web-based application.     

OLIVE‐MILL WASTEWATER IN ANTIQUITY. ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS AND APPLICATIONS

The present study examines the results of archaeological research and all the related information retrieved from the writings of ancient Greek and Roman authors on the use and the environmental effects of olive‐mill wastewater since antiquity. The ancients were aware of the negative effects that the uncontrolled disposal of olive‐mill wastewater had on the environment, while the controlled release was considered to be beneficial for the soil. A predecessor of olive‐mill wastewater is amurca (Latin) or amorge (Greek). Both terms have been used by ancient authors to describe the watery, bitter‐tasting liquid residue obtained when the oil is drained from compressed olives. The role of amurca or amorge is, however, difficult to assess, though it does seem to have been a universal remedy against insects, weeds and plant diseases. On the basis of production and consumption patterns, an attempt was made to estimate the annual olive oil production during the reign of Augustus, which in turn could provide us with an order of magnitude approach for the generated olive‐mill wastewater (amurca). Although there is no evidence that the Romans practised any detoxification technique for reducing the pollutant effects of this waste before disposal, several Greek and Roman writers have described the recycling of amurca into valuable products. Some of the uses of amurca are, in the light of recent research, questionable or not exactly applicable for the present day. However, the pesticidal and fertilizing properties of olive‐mill wastewater have been confirmed by a large number of research studies.     

Archaeology, Myth-History and the Tyranny of the Text: Chaldike, Torone and Thucydides

By focusing on Thucydides'Chalkidic Torone' against the backdrop of modern historians' neglect of archaeological evidence, this paper highlights not only another case of 'history being written by the winners,' but the persistent problem of privileging written documents over archaeological material in Aegean prehistory and classical archaeology. The practice of using literary historical records as direct historic analogues continues to be one of the methodological cornerstones of textual history. Such a neglect of archaeological evidence by historians of early Greece, South Italy and Sicily contributes to the current schism between prehistory and history. Even when the material record is used in historical inquiry, it is in a framework already defined or informed by written sources. By adopting a more integrated approach, this paper echoes Kent Lightfoot's (1995) perspective that archaeology is poised to play a pivotal role in the reconfiguration of historical studies.     

MAPPING THE UNDISCOVERED RUINS OF POMPEII (NAPLES,ITALY) USING GROUND PENETRATING RADAR*

The ground penetrating radar (GPR) technique was tested in Pompeii, in an unexplored area where the Roman ruins are partially buried in the volcanic deposits. The method was also combined with time domain reflectometry (TDR) measurements to estimate the dielectric properties of the different volcanic units. In spite of the total thickness of the covering materials and the high signal attenuation measured in some layers, the radar was able to show a detailed image of the volcanic sediments and to locate the manmade structures hidden in the ash deposits. Moreover, the present study shows that the integrated use of GPR and TDR techniques could be successfully employed to evaluate the performance of the radar in specific terrains covering archaeological sites. Since it is unlikely that a large part of Pompeii will ever be excavated, GPR could be successfully used to produce detailed maps of the ruins still hidden in the subsurface, giving archaeologists the possibility of reconstructing the entire urban development of this unique ancient city.     

SOLDIER, CIVILIAN AND MILITARY BRICK PRODUCTION

Summary.   Occasional claims have been made that some of the names on Roman military brick stamps could be those of civilian entrepreneurs tiling for the Roman army, most recently in the case of a stamp of Legio XX Valeria Victrix from Tarbock (Liverpool). This paper analyses these claims and investigates the evidence for interaction between the Roman army and civilians in brick production. The texts of the stamps and the archaeological context of the bricks and literary sources, which give information about the role of the army and civilian bodies in Roman provincial building, are taken into consideration.     

Earthquakes and archaeology

This article examines the use of archaeological evidence for the assessment of historical earthquakes in the Eastern Mediterranean region and Middle East, long before the advent of modern seismology. We ask the questions when and where have large earthquakes happened in the past? How can this evidence contribute to our scientific understanding of earthquake activity? Is it possible on literary and archaeological grounds to distinguish between earthquake damage and damage from other causes? It is found that archaeological evidence for an earthquake is not always clear or unambiguous and that there is a need for collaboration between archaeologists, historians, geologists, engineering seismologists and workers in other disciplines, to evaluate the traces of earthquakes in excavations, both for understanding their effects at the site and for the information they can provide about the nature of the earthquake implicated.