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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