The Discovered Winepress at Khirbet Shuwayka

The Discovered Winepress at Khirbet Shuwayka

Salah Al-Houdalieh

taannek@yahoo.com

Received : 17-07-2004 , Accepted : 16-07-2005

Language: Arabic

Abstract

The 2003 excavation season at Khirbet Shuwayka was conducted under the direction of the Institute of Islamic Archaeology/ Al-Quds University in Cooperation with a team from Oxford University. The excavation season extended more than four weeks in many areas, and the author supervised one of these. The discovered winepress consists of three champers connected by channels with three small juice-collecting vats, a large treading vat, a main juice-collecting vat, and eight other chambers, which were used for the temporary storage of jars filled with juice. The walls of these facilities were built of different sized stones, morter and small stones were also used to fullfill the spaces between the stone courses. The winepress had passed through two successive phases. In the first phase, pressing the grape bunches is done by a wooden cylinder fixed to a wooden spiral shaft which set in the center of the treading vat, but in the second phase the pressing is done by foot. The floors of some of these facilities were paved with mosaic tesserae directly on top of a morter layer with a high percent of lime. In terms of the comparison, this press in similar to others found in Palestine and Jordan that back to the Byzantine period.

Full Text