Idalion's Olive Presses Analyzed: The Combination of Levantine and Greek Cultural Practice

The olive presses at Idalion, a city-kingdom on the Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, exhibit an amalgamation of Levantine and Greek socio-economic and religious practices that were representative of Mediterranean culture at large. Idalion's olive presses illustrate the different uses of olive oil and how those uses reflected the community's unique atmosphere by combining both Greek and Levantine culture. The location of an olive press, as well as the artifacts found nearby, convey its use. Presses in the Lower City North produced oil as part of the cottage industry present in the area, while the press inside the ancient sanctuary on the East Acropolis provided oil for religious requirements. Aerial photography, maps, and photos provide the orientation of Cyprus within the Mediterranean and also Idalion within Cyprus, showing the geographical circumstances within which the city-kingdom became an important economic and religious center. This thesis will use photographs, architectural drawings, and illustrations confirm how each olive press was used. The physical remains of olive press installations at Tel Dan, Halieis, The Hill of Agios Georgios, and Myrtou-Pyghades each illustrate a different aspect of Greek or Levantine olive oil culture in the Mediterranean. The aspects, exhibited individually at the above sites, are all found present at Idalion. The olive presses illustrate Idalion's unique multi-cultural environment created by the social, religious, and economic implications of its location within Cyprus and the larger Mediterranean sphere. This study of the olive presses at Idalion opens an ethnographic window through which the effects of the cultural dynamic at Idalion had on the community in the Cypriot Bronze Age