Olive Press Shiloh

View of a typical olive crusher—center of image. This one is made out of local limestone. After the olives were harvested in the fall of the year, the olives were brought to such a crusher.

The olives were placed inside the depression of the large lower stone (left of center) and then the wheel–shaped upper stone was rotated over them as one or two persons pushed on the wooden beam for about 20 minutes. The wheel–shaped stone turned and rotated around over the olives inside the large fixed lower basin.

After the crushing, the olives were placed in baskets (upper left), and then pressure was applied to the baskets to squeeze out the olive oil (right side of image). The oil was then stored and used for cooking, lighting, cleansing, anointing, etc.