2,100-year-old wine press unearthed at Ashkelon construction site - Yori Yalon

by Yori Yalon

Wine press was discovered during an archaeological survey of a site slated for a new elementary school • Excavation director Ilan Peretz: We now know farming existed here much earlier than we thought • Press to be preserved as part of schoolyard.

The two-millennia-old wine press discovered at the site of a new elementary school | Photo credit: Assaf Peretz / Israel Antiquities Authority

A real history lesson: An archaeological survey by the Israel Antiquities Authority in preparation for the construction of a new elementary school in Ashkelon has revealed a 2,100-year-old wine press dating from the Hellenistic Period. 

The wine press is the oldest one found to date in the area. Alongside the press, excavations uncovered the remains of a large building. The findings appear to indicate that a sizeable farm existed and operated there during the late Hellenistic Period. 

The square wine press consists of a flat surface where people trampled wine grapes with their bare feet to extract the juice; a pit used to separate the grape skins from the grape juice; and a collecting vat into which the filtered grape juice was piped. All sections of the press were covered with a thick layer of white plaster mixed with seashells to prevent the liquid from leaking out. 

Excavation director Ilan Peretz explained that the building discovered next to the wine press appears to have been used for storing wine jugs and for housing workers. 

"Although we knew that there had been extensive agricultural activity, especially wine production, in the area during Roman and Byzantine times, we are now seeing evidence that the farming activity began much earlier than that," Peretz said. 

The Israel Antiquities Authority and the Ashkelon Municipality intend to work together on a project that will preserve the wine press in the yard of the school slated to go up on the site and continue archaeological excavations there, with school pupils taking part in the work.

Yori Yalon

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=38757

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