Wine Press 2

A small ancient wine press carved into the limestone bed rock in the Hill Country of Judah.

The circular hole on the lower left side of the image (filled with brown standing water) is the receptacle into which the grape juice would be collected.  The grapes themselves would be placed on the bed rock to the right, where the woman is crouching, and there people would press them using their feet.  By using this method, the seeds of the grapes were not crushed and thus would not add a bitter flavor to the juice/wine.

This wine press is located next to one of the “watchtowers” featured in this section.