Qlaʿ: A Royal Oil- and Wine-Production Centre in the Kingdom of Israel

Abstract

Salvage excavations at Qlaʿ, a small fortified Iron IIB site in the southwestern Samaria Highlands, conducted in 1980, revealed several stone-built structures, numerous rock-cut olive-oil extracting installations and two large wine presses. In this article we present the main findings from this investigation, discuss technological and economic aspects of local production and evaluate the probability of royal ownership. In our opinion, the features of this site and other nearby settlements indicate that it was one of the royal production centres of the Kingdom of Israel in the 8th century BCE. The finds uncovered at the site showcase a unique attempt of transformation from a simple subsistence economy into a surplus production, profit-oriented, ‘market’ economy. This process was initiated and led by the central government in Samaria and probably provided economic prosperity and political strength in the days of Jeroboam II (786–746 BCE). Olive oil and wine were produced at Qlaʿ continuously until the very last days of the Kingdom of Israel.

Keywords:

• Qlaʿ
• Samaria Highlands
• Iron Age IIB
• Kingdom of Israel
• Olive oil
• Wine
• Royal production
• Ancient economy

Disclosure statement

The authors report that there are no competing interests to declare.

Acknowledgements

The salvage excavations at Qlaʿ were conducted by the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University and were directed by David Eitam (licence no. 200 of the Staff Officer of Archaeology, Department of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria). Two excavation seasons were conducted (13 days in total) in March and April of 1980. Special thanks are extended to Dr. Assaf Kleiman, who analysed the ceramic assemblage and assisted in writing the manuscript’s revised versions, and to our friend and colleague Yigal Tepper, who surveyed the terraced fields around the site, suggested their connection to the sites and produced the general architectural plans. Judith Dekel drew the illustrations of the installations; Dr. Liora Freud served as registrar; Nili Cohen-Lapidot reconstructed the pottery; and Ada Perry drew the pottery and the small finds. We are grateful to the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav and many friends for participating in the fieldwork. We thank Dr. Hananya Hizmi, the Staff Officer of Archaeology, Archaeology Department of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria, and Miriam Hasid, the curator of the office collection, for their assistance in providing access to the finds and allowing the publishing of their photos and drawings. We are grateful to the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions and to Hagit Migron for editing the article.

Supplementary material

Supplementary data for this article can be accessed online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03344355.2024.2327798

Notes

1 A fourth site might be Khirbet Sakariya West (N. Lev, personal communication).

2 Qlaʿ was studied by D. Eitam following the Biddya map survey (1979–1980). The results suggest that the site was founded as a hamlet in the Iron I, rebuilt in the Iron II as a fortified production centre (as indicated by ca. 80% of all the collected sherds) and had minor occupation episodes in the Hellenistic period (Eitam 1980: 79–80, Pl. 15).

3 In an online supplement, A. Kleiman investigates the chrono-typology of the ceramic assemblage unearthed during the excavations of Qlaʿ. For a lion figurine uncovered in the excavations, see Ziffer 2024.

4 ‘Boundary’ walls observed in several rural settlements in the Southern Levant were sometimes considered to be elements defining the border of the site from spatial and ideological perspectives (Faust 2000: 26–28, Table 4; 2012: 167–168). Considering the robust nature of the wall at Qlaʿ and the fact that it was also observed in places clearly defined by moderate or almost vertical cliffs, we tend to assign it a defensive function. It could also have been used for social and status differentiation (see, e.g., Ben-Yosef, Langgut and Sapir-Hen 2017: 424–425).

5 The precise function of these features cannot be determined without further excavation.

6 The same arrangement of a fortified gateway and a smaller entrance was found at Ḥudaš (Eitam 1992; Riklin 1997). It seems plausible that the small entrances at Qlaʿ and Ḥudaš leading directly to the olive groves served for easy access to the cultivated area.

7 In total, 67 indicative sherds were found in L013; half of these were storage vessels (including storage jars, pithoi and two thirds of the jugs), a quarter were cooking ware (including cooking pots and two thirds of the kraters) and another quarter were serving vessels (including bowls, the other third of the kraters and the other third of the jugs, as well as juglets and lamps). See Lederman 1999 for functional distribution of ceramic assemblages; and see Eitam 2022: 283, for a similar method for the functional distribution of ground stones.

8 The functional analysis of the pottery of Room L102 demonstrates that 56% of the finds were storage vessels, 30% were cooking vessels (including two basalt handstones), and 14% were serving vessels; five personal items were found as well. The defective jars must have been used as stationary storage containers. Their fragile nature probably rendered them unsuitable for transporting expensive liquids, such as olive oil. Alternatively, Room L102 may have been converted into a refuse pit, into which deformed hippo jars manufactured in a local kiln were thrown through an opening in the ceiling.

9 Hundreds of bell-shaped pits were documented at 40 Iron II sites in the southern Samaria Highlands (Tavger 2018: 416).

10 These modifications, all made during the short relevant time period of Qlaʿ, highlight the dynamic activity in the settlement and corresponded to changing public economy needs.

11 The presence of torpedo jars in farmsteads in northern Israel is not such a rare phenomenon (e.g., Rast 1978: Fig. 75:2; Covello-Paran 2008: 41, Fig. 35:14; Gal and Alexandre 2000: 158, Fig. V.5:13,16,18–20).

12 During the Roman period, holding olives before the press was a regular procedure, as is evident from the Mishnah (Menachot 8, 4–5): ‘place them [the olives] in a mʿatan [vat] until they soften, and their skins are pliable, and their appearance changes’.

13 Rounded stone slabs (20 cm in diameter; 7 cm thick) were documented near an oil press at Ḥudaš (Riklin 1997: 11, Fig. 6) and at Khirbet Deir Daqla (Har-Even 2011: 18). The small diameter of the olive’s sacks allowed maximum pressure, enabling effective extraction of the liquid (like in the pre-industrial screw press, see Frankel, Avitsur and Ayalon 1994: Fig. 123B). One can estimate the length of the press beam to be 5.5 m following the discovery of oil press no. 17 in a cave (Fig. 13b).

14 The oil production is calculated based on the volume of the collecting vats (an average of 10 litres). The oil capacity was estimated at 20% of the oil content in the fruit liquid (in the common suri olive brand, the oil content reached 28%, see Singer 1985: 115). This sum was multiplied by 22 oil presses and 150 operations per press (assuming a minimum number of six operations during ten daylight hours, an hour and a half each [Avitsur 1994: 124], during 25 harvest days per season, the duration of traditional olive harvest); we then reduced the estimated annual of production (6,600 litres) by 20%, given the alternate bearing of olive trees (i.e., significant fluctuation in yield from year to year; see, e.g., Kour et al. 2018).

15 We estimate annual personal consumption of oil in the Iron IIB to be around two litres, i.e., ca. 15% of the consumption in the Roman period (M. Ketubot 5:8–9). Our estimation is based on oil consumption in the Roman period and on the ratio between the small capacity of the simple oil installation of the Iron I–IIA (200–500 ml of oil, Broshi 1986; Beʾeri 2008), compared to the lever-and-weight press (two litres of olive oil).

16 The volume of the collecting vat in the simple wine press is 1,942 litres, while in the complex wine press it is 3,485 litres, totalling 5,427 litres.

17 The liquid turned into wine after three to four weeks of secondary fermentation in storage jars. It seems that the drawing of the liquid into the jars was a crucial moment in ancient wine-making, due to the need to prevent it from becoming acid due to exposure to oxygen (Feingeresh and Eitam 1988: 34–38; see above, installation type 1). A small perforation drilled into the vessel’s shoulder to evaporate the CO2 during the second fermentation process (the duration of wine fermentation was invariable; ibid.: Figs. 29, 33, 38). The wine jars were later sealed and kept in storage structures and small bell-shaped pits for aging.

18 Minimal consumption of 200 ml of wine was estimated to be 20% of the daily personal consumption in the Roman period (Broshi 1984; 1986). Accordingly, we assume that the 50 adult males among the 100 inhabitants (Broshi and Finkelstein 1992) of Qlaʿ would have consumed 7,900 litres of wine annually.

19 Kurnet Bir et-Tell is a small fortified site that yielded Iron II sherds, with at least ten oil presses concentrated on its eastern side (Finkelstein et al. 1997: 447).

20 We distinguish between Qlaʿ (and the three other 8th-century BCE royal oil-production centres mentioned above) and royal estates, such as Ḥorvat Ṭevet (Sergi et al. 2021: 36*–39*). The latter was an unfortified site with a central monumental structure dated to the 9th century BCE and, in contrast to Qlaʿ, served as a royal administrative centre for storage and redistribution of cereals. Since no domestic buildings were identified at Ḥorvat Ṭevet, it may be assumed that seasonal labour was conducted by day workers, probably from the nearby villages. In addition, in the view of one of the authors (D.E.), the high degree of planning at Qlaʿ resembles the layout of the Israelite royal cities, such as Megiddo Stratum IVA, albeit in small dimensions. The reference here is, in particular, to the defence system of the site (including inaccessible areas, probably for deterrence, and a bastion-like feature, possibly signifying the location of a fortified gatehouse). To this one should add the relatively limited dwelling quarters, as opposed to the extensive storage facilities and sizeable water reservoirs, all serving changing public economy needs. Note also the courtyards and the existence of at least one well-built edifice (Building 15, Area A), possibly a residence (these elements also appear in nearby Ḥudaš; Eitam 1992).

21 At Ḥudaš, eight rooms without entrances, where access would have been via the ceiling, were uncovered. In addition, two sizeable storage structures, at least one of which was a pillared building, occupied about a third of the site’s area (Riklin 1997: Fig. 2; Eitam 1992: 164).

22 Despite the paucity of evidence, which makes it difficult to describe the original natural flora (Provolotsky, Polak and Lachman 1992), judging by the few remaining patches of woodland and a few sacred trees (a mighty oak tree was growing in Khirbet Tibna in 1896; Dafni 2010), there may have been a forest of oak (Quercus calliprinos) and terebinth (Pistacia palaestina) (Waisel, Pollak and Cohen 1978: 79) around the site.

23 This estimation is based on the high yield of the local and probably ancient olive-tree brand— nabali baladi and the fact that olive groves traditionally contain 100–150 trees per hectare (Singer 1985).

24 The total of 5,000 litres should be reduced by the amount paid to the agricultural and production workers (e.g., the craftsmen and the donkey drivers who transported the oil). Payment of oil jars was a common custom in the ancient Near East. Among the recipients were also the royal officials who managed the olive groves and vineyards and the transportation of the products, as well as the tithe collectors of oil, wine and cereals as a tax from the village farmers (such procedures were recorded in detail in the early literary texts of Ugarit (Heltzer 1996: 84–86).

25 We accept the conception that the traditional subsistence strategies as a whole were dominant in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah throughout the Iron Age (e.g., Hopkins 1983; Reviv 1993; Bendor 1996), not excluding the markets in central cities and capitals (e.g., Nam 2012). However, the emerging oil and wine market economy may not dismiss non-state sectors and individuals in addition to the royal sector and its officials (and social gaps; Heltzer 1996: 84). For other reasons for breaking up traditional kin-based social structures, see Schloen 2001: 147, 183.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Eitam

David Eitam: independent scholar

Zvi Lederman

Zvi Lederman: Director of the Tel Beth-Shemesh excavations on behalf of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University; email: [email protected]

Assaf Kleiman

Assaf Kleiman: Department of Archaeology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beʾer Sheva email: [email protected]