In yet another ‘jewish invention’ we have the claim by Suzanne Downing in ‘Must Read Alaska’ that jews ‘invented the olive press’. (1) This is an infrequent claim but as most of the nonsense claims about supposed ‘jewish inventions’ come from similarly blithe statements contrary to fact but with some kind of superficial plausibility. It behooves me to address Downing’s claim, which is specifically that:
‘Ancient Israelis invented a way to extract oil from olives and juice from grapes.’ (2)
Downing is referring to the fact that the earliest olive press identified by archaeologists has been found in modern Israel so thus she infers that this is somehow an ‘Israeli invention’ (and thus also a ‘jewish invention’). She doesn’t mention any of the details around this discovery – such as the fact that it was made at the site of Tell Hadar in the Golan Heights on the north-eastern side of the lake of Galilee, that it is dated to around 1,200 B.C. and that it consists of a large stone weight that was used to crush olives in a pit – (3) because it completely debunks her own claim that it has something to do with Israel and the jews. Since the Galilee was only allegedly conquered by the Israelite Kings David and Solomon circa 900 to 1,000 B.C. (4) not circa 1,200 B.C. when the area was under the rule of (and populated by) the Arameans and thus the site’s olive press has absolutely nothing to do with the Israelites and/or the jews.
Further it is thought that the technology for making olive oil via an olive press probably existed around 2,500 B.C to 3,000 B.C (5) so even if by some miracle the olive press at Tell Hadar did have something to do with the Israelites and/or the jews then it certainly wasn’t invented by them!
References
(1) https://mustreadalaska.com/beyond-uzis-and-iron-dome-75-israeli-inventions-and-four-palestinian-innovations-that-changed-the-world/
(2) Idem.
(3) https://holylandoil.com/blogs/news/the-oldest-olive-press-ever-found; https://www.monini.com/en/article/oil-extraction-technology-in-the-past/
(4) Archaeologists and historians have long regarded the so-called ‘Davidic Empire’ as a later jewish propaganda myth and King David as basically a glorified regional bandit chief. On this see Steven McKenzie, 2000, ‘King David: A Biography’, 1st Edition, Oxford University Press: New York, esp. pp. 20-22; 148-152
(5) https://exauoliveoil.com/blogs/olive-oil/what-is-an-olive-press; https://www.thoughtco.com/ancient-history-of-making-olive-oil-4047748
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