one of the oldest and largest olive press was discovered in northern Israel
When archaeologists uncovered a huge Byzantine-era olive press in the Western Galilee, frozen in time by an ancient fire, they revealed something remarkable: the way oil was made 1,400 years ago is, in its essentials, the way it is made today. Here is how the old presses worked.
At Ahihud in the Western Galilee, a development dig turned up one of the largest oil-production complexes ever found in the region — a Byzantine press from the sixth or seventh century CE, so large and well-appointed that archaeologists suspect it served a monastery rather than a single farmer. A fire in the seventh century destroyed the building but, as fires sometimes do, froze its layout in place for us to read. Two plaster-lined storage vats alone held some twenty thousand litres. It is an astonishing survival — and a working diagram of an industry already ancient when it burned.
How an ancient press actually worked
The process had three stages, and they are the same three we still use. First, crushing: olives, pits and all, were fed under a great round stone that an animal walked in circles to turn, grinding the fruit to a paste. Second, pressing: the paste was packed into woven baskets, stacked, and squeezed under a beam-and-weight or screw press, the baskets doubling as filters so the liquid ran out and the pits and pulp stayed behind. Third, separation: the runoff, a mix of oil and watery lees, was left in settling vats where the lighter oil rose and could be skimmed. Crush, press, separate. That is still, at heart, exactly what a modern mill does.
| Stage | Byzantine press (this site) | Modern mill |
|---|---|---|
| Crushing | Animal-turned stone mill grinds fruit to paste | Steel hammer or roller mill |
| Pressing | Paste in woven baskets, beam/screw and stone weight | Hydraulic press or continuous centrifuge (decanter) |
| Separation | Oil skimmed from settling vats as it rises | High-speed centrifuge separates oil from water |
| Storage | Plaster-lined stone vats (~20,000 L here) | Stainless-steel, inert-gas-topped tanks |
Why oil was worth all this effort
A complex on this scale was a serious industrial investment, and it tells you what olive oil meant to the ancient world. It was food and cooking fat, yes, but also lamp fuel, soap, medicine, cosmetic and a sacred substance for anointing — a near-universal commodity. A region that could press and store oil in bulk held real wealth and could trade it far. The Galilee site sat inland from the great port of Akko, perfectly placed to supply a city and ship a surplus. The press was, in modern terms, a small refinery feeding a supply chain.
What has changed — and what hasn’t
Modern mills replaced the walking donkey with steel hammer-mills and the beam press with the continuous centrifuge, which is faster, cleaner and gentler on the oil. The single biggest gain is speed and temperature control: get the fruit crushed and separated quickly and cool, and you keep the fragile flavour and antioxidants that heat and time destroy — the very difference that lets us bottle ‘extra virgin’ today. But the logic is unchanged. Whether it is a Byzantine monk’s stone press or a stainless-steel decanter, the job is to crush the fruit, squeeze out the liquid, and part the oil from the water. Fourteen centuries on, the olive still gives up its oil the same way.
What the old presses teach us
- The three steps — crush, press, separate — have not changed in millennia.
- Oil was food, fuel, medicine and ritual at once, which is why presses were built on an industrial scale.
- Bulk storage (here ~20,000 litres) meant wealth and trade, not just a household’s supply.
- The modern leap is speed and cool temperature, which preserves the flavour and antioxidants we now call the mark of extra virgin.
Ancient olive presses: common questions
How did ancient people make olive oil?
In three stages: crushing the whole fruit to a paste under a rotating stone, pressing that paste in woven baskets under a beam or screw press, then letting the runoff settle so the oil could be skimmed from the watery lees.
How old is the Galilee olive press?
It dates to the Byzantine period, roughly the sixth to seventh century CE, and was destroyed by a fire in the seventh century that preserved much of its structure.
Why was olive oil so important in the ancient world?
It was food and cooking fat, lamp fuel, soap, medicine, cosmetic and a sacred anointing substance — a near-universal commodity, so the ability to produce and store it in bulk was real wealth.
Is modern olive oil made the same way?
In principle, yes — crush, press, separate — but modern mills use steel crushers and centrifuges that work faster and cooler, which better preserves flavour and antioxidants.
What are the ‘lees’ in olive pressing?
The watery, non-oily liquid squeezed from the fruit along with the oil. In settling vats the lighter oil rises above these lees and is skimmed off.
What strikes anyone who has stood in a working mill and then looked at a ruin like this is how little the essentials have moved. We swapped a walking donkey for a motor and a stone beam for a centrifuge, and we learned to do it faster and cooler — which is the whole secret of a fresh, fragrant extra virgin. But a Byzantine monk would recognise a modern mill in an afternoon: crush the fruit, squeeze the paste, let the oil rise off the water. The tools changed; the olive did not.
Drawn from Israel Antiquities Authority reports on the Ahihud excavation and the history of olive-oil pressing.