Opvscvla archaeologica, Vol. 31 No. 1, 2007.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
On the discovery of Late antique presses in Poreč in 1997
Robert Matijašić
; Svučilište Jruja Dobrila u Puli, Pula, Hrvatska
Sažetak
During archaeological research conducted on Matija
Gubec square in Poreč in 1997, many layers of architectural
remains dating to Antiquity, Late Antiquity
and the Middle Ages were found, among them
two nice, rather large stone anchors for olive presses
with stone block counterweights. The presses were
located in a room that corresponds to the northern
researched section of the present-day square. Technologically,
they are a variant of the presses with a
beam, which has a support on one end, next to the
base for the crushing basket, while on the other, about
ten meters away, it has a mechanism to lower the
beam and apply pressure to the mass being crushed.
The walls of the room with presses are reinforced from
the inside with counterforts which are best preserved
on the eastern wall. The existence of counterforts, as
well as the reconstructed length of the beam, lead to
the conclusion that this was a strong, high-capacity
mechanism and that it was used to produce olive oil,
regardless of the fact that no remains of a millstone,
otherwise customary in such cases, were found. The
existence of presses in the city is brought into connection
with the process of rural depopulation after the
fourth century, when some rural economic functions
appeared in the cities where they previously were not
the norm. This is comparable to the situation in Pula
(new discoveries in 1996), Nesactium (press in the Roman baths) and on the Brijuni islands (the so-called
Castrum with three or four presses in the settlement’s
Late Antique phase).
Ključne riječi
Late Antiquity; Istria; economy; oil and wine; presses
Hrčak ID:
26724
URI
Datum izdavanja:
22.8.2008.
Posjeta: 2.619 *