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MEGALITHIC MADNESS AND MEASUREMENT. OR HOW MANY OLIVES COULD AN OLIVE PRESS PRESS?
Author(s) -
MATTINGLY DAVID J.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
oxford journal of archaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.382
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1468-0092
pISSN - 0262-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0092.1988.tb00175.x
Subject(s) - megalith , prehistory , olive oil , context (archaeology) , archaeology , ethnography , character (mathematics) , art , history , interpretation (philosophy) , art history , philosophy , linguistics , chemistry , geometry , food science , mathematics
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.