The Olive Oil Economy of Byzantine and Early Islamic Palestine: Some Critical Notes

A recent theory, which deals with various aspects of olive oil production in late antique Palestine, claims in favour of an Early Islamic date for the introduction of two of the most common local oil pressing techniques - the lever and screw and the direct screw press with grooved stone piers frame, and also diminishes the role of churches and monasteries in the Palestinian olive oil economy. The present article reassesses these and other related issues, and provides clear archaeological and historical evidence which shows that the discussed oil production methods were in use already in the Byzantine period, and that the contemporaneous Palestinian Church and many of the country’s agricultural monasteries were deeply involved in the olive oil economy.