A late hellenistic wine press at Knossos

Abstract

In a rescue excavation at Knossos in 1977, a building dating to the last years of the hellenistic period was discovered. In it were an area with a stone tub and lid, the use of which was unknown, a well, and a wine press. The wine press had a treading-floor with remains of flooring composed of flagstones and plaster, which sloped towards a hole in a low barrier wall. The hole gave onto a stone spout, set above a tank coated in waterproof plaster. Adjacent was part of a store building, which was probably used as a cellar: it contained one pithos and there were indications that there had been others. Two tests below the building uncovered the violent destruction of a house of earlier hellenistic date, a stratum with sherds of the end of the 8th cent.–beginning of the 7th cent. BC, and scanty remains of the Minoan period.