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Unguere : To Smear with Oil

Unguere : To Smear with Oil . Lori Kissell FLAVA October 04, 2013. Origin. Gift of Athena Symbol of Attica/Athens Never most important Attic crop and likely not primary export. Production and Uses. Production – growing -crushing -pressing -transporting Uses - -light -cooking

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Unguere : To Smear with Oil

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  1. Unguere: To Smear with Oil Lori Kissell FLAVA October 04, 2013

  2. Origin • Gift of Athena • Symbol of Attica/Athens • Never most important Attic crop and likely not primary export

  3. Production and Uses Production – growing -crushing -pressing -transporting Uses - -light -cooking -bodies -ritual

  4. Production • Growing: • Lower slopes of Apennines • Spain • Southern Gaul • Greece • Asiatic provinces • coastal Tripolitania and Cyrenaica • African provinces

  5. Production • Growing • Highly drought-resistant • Sensitive to frost • Usually crop every other year • Cuttings, ovules and grafts • Olives do not grow true to type from seeds • Table/oil varieties • Rarely mono-cultured

  6. Production • Growing • Combined with pastoralism • Harvested in autumn/winter • Greeks and Romans liked “white” olives for oil

  7. Production • Crushing • Packed in salt/saltwater first • Not edible raw • Crush first • Many devices known • Simplest – flat bed and stone roller, pestle, wooden sandals • Best is Roman trapetum

  8. Production • Crushing • Don’t crush stones – add bitter taste • Luxury/quality oil removed stones first or minimal crushing of stones • Machines existed for stone removal, questionable effectiveness • Crushed olives moved to frails, then to presses

  9. Production • Pressing • Simplest and most common press = beam • Weighted with rocks, human pulling • End fixed in wall as fulcrum • Weight pulled onto crushed olives in frails, pressing oil out

  10. Production • Pressing -Improvements to beam press incl. winch, lever and drum, better anchoring -Screw 1st assisted, then replaced beam -Direct screw press replaced beam 1st C. CE -Possible because of screw, screw nut 3rd C BCE --Pliny, screw extracts more, risks bitterness

  11. Production • Pressing • Separate oil and water • Romans ladle from top per Cato (Agr. 66) and Columella (Rust. 12.52-8-12) • Greeks more commonly use bottom spout method • Presscake remains, used for pig food and fertilizer

  12. Production • Transporting • Most olives raised and consumed locally • Oil keeps better, and is traded • Luxury oils for quality, taste, added flavorings traded like vintage wine

  13. Production • Transporting • Attica, Samos, Venafrum, Baetica, Cyrenaica all famous for oil • Stored and transported in large jars (dolia/pithoi) • Sold in amphorae • 2/3 sherds in Mt. Testaccio are olive oil amphorae • Peak in trade 140-165 CE

  14. Uses • Light • Lamps were pottery, bronze, gold, silver, iron, lead, ceramic • Single or multiple nozzle styles • Freestanding or suspended • Smokeless or minimal smoke

  15. Uses • Cooking • Roman recipes abound with olive oil • Dunk (morning) bread • Infuse with flavors – herbs? decadent?

  16. Uses • Bodies • Baths and strigils • Skin oils

  17. Uses Bodies • Perfumes

  18. Uses • Bodies • Medicaments

  19. Uses Ritual -Oil from sacred trees (moriai) given as prizes in Panathenaic Games

  20. Uses Ritual -Libations

  21. Uses • Roman wedding • Anoint couple’s new door with oil-soaked wool

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