Theme:
1. The Material Record: Current Trends and Future Directions
Session format:
Discussion session (with formal abstracts)
Title:
Integrating Data on Ancient Wine and Oil Presses: Challenges and Interpretative Potential
Content:
In recent years, the field of ancient wine and oil studies has seen major developments in data and methods, with new archaeological, historical, and interdisciplinary approaches now able to extract more and better information out of our datasets. Unavoidably, however, exploiting these developments to the full demands evermore systematization and optimalization of the data themselves.
Given the prominence of wine and oil in the ancient world, facilities for their production are a major archaeological proxy for studying the nature, scale, and performance of the ancient economy. Their full potential, however, remains hampered by a profound lack of systematic geographical inventories, insufficient insight into regional and global patterns in site nature and distribution, and the existence of many, non-complementary terminologies, typologies and classifications (in technology, press components, architecture, etc.).
Without doubt, a concerted effort to bring together these data in a database format that allows for detailed questions on 1) the nature, scale and chronology of production, 2) the technology used in these installations, and 3) the relation of installations to settlement, will be a major step forward in our understanding of the ancient economy, from the Bronze and Iron Age to Late Antiquity.
This session brings together regional specialists and expert colleagues currently working on ancient wine and oil production in the Mediterranean and beyond. The first aim is to acquire an overview of current work in the field, and to identify common technical, methodological, and interpretative issues when integrating individual sites and regional datasets. Second, the session also serves as a starting point for a long-term, collaborative network, meant to guide and streamline future work, and to set up a common research agenda.
Keywords:
Ancient economy, Wine, Olive oil, Agriculture, Classical Antiquity, Food production
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Dimitri Van Limbergen (Belgium) 1
Co-organisers:
Tomasz Waliszewski (Poland) 2
Affiliations:
1. Ghent University
2. University of Warsaw
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