In yet another ‘jewish invention’ we have the claim by Suzanne Downing in ‘Must Read Alaska’ that jews ‘invented the wine 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 – that she also somehow thinks is a wine press (they are similar but different things) – identified by archaeologists has been found in modern Israel so thus she infers that this somehow means that the wine press is 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 (not grapes!) in a pit – (3) because it completely debunks her own claim that it has something to do with Israel and the jews, because 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 (that Downing somehow thinks also has something to do with pressing wine) has absolutely nothing to do with the Israelites and/or the jews.
The truth is that the earliest known wine press (and winery for that matter) dates back to circa 4,000 B.C. in ancient Armenia at the site now known as the ‘Areni-1 winery’. (5)
Even before this site was discovered – which back dated the first known winery by circa a thousand years – it was well-known and widely accepted that the origins of wine (and the wine press) lie in the area of Transcaucasia around the Black Sea (think modern Armenia and Georgia), (6) while wine was being widely consumed in Anatolia (modern Turkey), the Jordan Valley, Lebanon and Syria circa 8,000 B.C. (7) but it is generally believed that wine and wine press spread south from Transcaucasia and was promptly adopted by cultures as different as the Egyptians and the Myceneans. (8)
Thus we can see that the Israelites and/or the jews had absolutely no role in inventing wine and/or the wine press!
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://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2011-jan-11-la-sci-ancient-winery-20110111-story.html
(6) Hugh Johnson, 1989, ‘Vintage: The Story of Wine’, 1st Edition, Simon and Schuster: New York, pp. 14-15
(7) Ibid., pp. 16-17
(8) Ibid., pp. 18-19
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