Wine and oil production were especially important in the Byzantine diet. In the Mediterranean coastal regions, the olive tree was the major oil crop. Flax was also particularly important, especially in the temperate regions of the empire. The extraction of olive and other oils (flaxseed, sesame) was accomplished by milling, then placing the resultant pulp into a press. The simple lever and weights press consisted of a socket in the wall of a building or a pair of upright piers in which was anchored the press beam. Baskets containing the pulp fresh from the mill were stacked to the front of the beam. The beam was lowered onto the stack through applying weights or through a windlass or by means of a screw anchored in a stone. The weight of the beam thus exerted force on the baskets and expelled a mix of pulp, kernels, oil, and watery lees. By the Middle Byzantine period, most oil presses employed screw technology in one fashion or another. A fine Middle Byzantine oil press in Aphrodisias, a large-scale lever and screw press, is probably largely representative (Ahmet 2001).
An old improvement (a Hellenistic invention) in the oil press technology was adopted widely in early Byzantium. The direct screw press operated without the long lever beam and involved a rigid frame that housed a pressing board that operated vertically directly onto the pulp-filled baskets. Thus the direct screw press required less wood in its construction. It further reduced pressing time. Direct screw presses are abundant on Cyprus and examples are known from the Chalkidike. The direct screw press was not universally used in Byzantium, but was a technological option that served side by side with the older lever press varieties (Frankel 1999: 25-30).
The direct screw press was also used in wine production, notably in the large-scale wineries of early Byzantium in Palestine. The use of the screw press for wine production in other areas of the empire is uncertain. In north Syria and Cilicia, roller installations were used to crush the grapes quickly and efficiently. In most regions of the empire wine production was by means of the simple treading floor {lenos) which might be wooden, as it was in the case of Skaranos’ estate near Corinth (Nesbitt 1973). Wine-treading floors were often cut into bedrock and represented a minimal investment in capital outlay. While not as efficient or specialized as the centralized wineries of early Byzantine Syria-Palestine, these wineries were well adapted for local and communal production.
World History
