Monday, December 14, 2020
Elder of Ziyon
In 2006, archaeologists discovered an industrial olive oil press in a cave near Alonei Abba in the north of Israel.
It was dated to between the 4th and1st centuries BCE, which would mean it was about the same time as the Maccabees.
That seal remains a mystery.
A paper written some years later determines that it is likely to be of Jewish origin and portraying a dove and an olive branch, a popular motif and one that is known from the Flood story.
The most likely explanation seems to be that this was meant to be a seal for use in identifying olive oil jugs to be unadulterated - scammers would try to dilute olive oil with vinegar and the seal could be some sort of certification. It doesn't seem likely that this seal would certify that the oil is the pure olive oil for use in the Temple, though.
This seal and the olive oil press shows the importance of olive oil to Jews in Israel thousands of years ago. The Chanukah story itself centers on olive oil, after all.
Palestinians have tried to make it appear that they are the ones who have been harvesting olives for thousands of years. Yet there are plenty of olive oil presses from the Canaanite, Jewish and Byzantine periods that pre-date the Muslim period. And olive oil was no less important to them.
