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An olive oil miracle: Clazomenae
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selected for you by Anita Donohoe: http://turkradio.us/k/zyag/ ] An olive oil miracle: Clazomenae By BAHAR KALKAN The `factory' that has come to light in the ancient city of Clazomenae represents the earliest example of the technology still used in today's production of olive oil. Olive tree, olive branch, olive, olive oil... These words evoke celebrated legends and fables that have been the subject of folksongs and even featured in the scriptures...The olive pit is one of the three seeds that when placed in Adam's mouth took root and grew. When the Flood was over the good tidings were carried in the beak of the dove, the symbol of man making peace with God on the one hand and with nature on the other. It was olive oil that provided the `everlasting' light in the temple that Pharaoh Ramses III built for the Sun god Ra. Athena, the goddess of wisdom, science and art earned the right to become the city's protector when she presented Athens with the wild olive tree she had grafted. Olive leaves formed the crown placed on the heads of the winners of the ancient Olympic Games. The oil of the olive was the `golden liquid' that saved Ali Baba in the Tales from the Thousand and One Nights. The olive is the tree of the Holy Scriptures, mentioned in both the Old and the New Testament, and also in the Koran. This sacred tree is the symbol of rebirth, immortality, affluence and plenty, tranquillity and abundance, peace and civilisation.* ORIGIN OF THE MIRACLE In Urla near Izmir I listened to a story where these words were mentioned. It was told by Prof. Dr. Guven Bakir, who together with his team has been excavating the antique city of Clazomenae for 25 years for Ege University's Department of Archaeology. Although we were not in the shade of the delicately fluttering silvery leaves of century old olive trees, we were just as appropriately in the city of Clazomenae, the city where everything that revolves around olives and the miracle first took place. Our story goes back to the 12th or 11th century BC, when people migrating from Greece sought a new home in Western Anatolia. There they generally settled on the peninsulas, establishing their Ionian civilisation. When they first arrived, the newcomers became farmers who rarely left their own environs. Equality is their biggest virtue. They know that without equal share there cannot be equal defence. But the peaceful life of the Ionians is shattered by the arrival of the Cimmerians in the 7th century BC. For 50 years they are not left in peace, and survive by establishing colonies in far away lands. They live in Thrace, around the shores of the Black Sea, in Northern Anatolia, on the coast of the Sea of Marmara and in remote parts of the Aegean Sea. Some of them go to Egypt and Palestine as mercenary soldiers. They return after fifty years... more experienced, more knowledgeable, and having added trade to their means of making a livelihood. They start exporting their products to their colonies, and among these, olive oil is the most important. ANCIENT OLIVE OIL FACTORY The olive oil factory in Clazomenae, which is the setting of our story, is one of the places where this olive oil production takes place. It is situated in the city's `industrial estate'. Immediately below it are the blacksmiths, and the potters are a little further away. The time is the 6th century BC. This workshop is quite unique. The production technology used here is not found anywhere else, either in this era or even in plants built much later. First of all it has a three compartment oil separation system, so evidently oil production was going on more or less constantly. Secondly, the mill stones that turn around in a grove quickly crush the olives. Thirdly, when the big press is put into operation for large-scale production, a complicated but practical capstan is used. It is these three elements that set this workshop apart from all those of its own time, and these that make it the world's earliest representative of the technology used in the production of olive oil today. We know that the method used by all the workshops dating from that period that have been found, right up to the 4th century BC, is primitive and very basic. It consists of pressing the oil into a container, letting it settle, skimming off the oil, emptying the container and then repeating the process. KNOWING THE LANGUAGE OF THE SOIL Indeed our own workshop has used this method in its earliest period, but is perhaps abandoned when the Persians arrive in 550 BC. The Persians, like the Cimmerians, do not give the Ionians peace. They burn and destroy, forcing them to leave their homeland. But the Ionians are not about to give up this fertile soil. In 530 BC they begin to resettle their land, and the owners of the workshop return. But this time they introduce a completely new system: the advanced technology that we have just described. How did they discover a system so advanced for its time? No one has yet answered this question. For this workshop has no contemporary. There are only two other early examples of a three compartment oil separation system: one in Spain from the Roman era, another in Cyprus dating from the mediaeval period under Venetian rule. Both are hundreds of years younger than our workshop. It is clear that nature itself gave Ionia's philosophers of nature the answers to their questions. It is clear that they learned the language of the soil well and understood what it told them. What they had learned theoretically from observation they applied to industry. So is this the only example in Anatolia? What about the past and the future? Who knows? As research in the bottomless well of Anatolia's ancient past progresses we may make new discoveries. Let us return to our workshop, to the factories from which the Clazomenaean merchants get tons of oil. For storage and export they use amphoras that also are specially produced in Clazomenae. They load them onto ships one by one. Yet fresh disaster awaits, and the lifetime of this workshop lasts for just 30 years. During the Ionian revolution in 500 BC Clazomenae gets its share of Persian wrath. The population flees and does not return for a hundred years, by which time no one remembers the workshop. Deep in the ground it falls into a slumber. this project has taken ten years and only since November 2004 has the factory started to produce olive oil once again, proving its immortality... THE WORKSHOP IS RESTORED Hundreds of years, thousands of years go by. And new heroes appear before us. The leading roles are now taken by our storyteller Guven Bakir and his colleague, graphic designer Ertan Iplikci. Together with their teams they discover the factory after nearly 2500 years in the depths of the earth. The word of the miracle is spread. Ertugrul Kale from Greenactive comes to meet them. Komili, one of Turkey's foremost olive oil producers is captivated by the charm of the story. The company declares its intention of restoring the workshop. They even want to use materials unique to the region and true to the era, avoiding anything unnatural. Ertan Iplikci is the project manager and Kutay Ozer is the architect. They cast their moulds with the adobe whose recipe they have acquired from their elders who are skilled at this craft. White Urla stones form the foundation and the unfired, sun-dried clay bricks form the walls. Carpenters produce the wooden tools and mechanisms, while their iron reinforcements are beaten by blacksmiths. Reeds are laid on the roof of the factory. The mill stones are shaped by capable hands. It is easier said than done: : this project has taken ten years and only since November 2004 has the factory started to produce olive oil once again, proving its immortality... THE STORY DOES NOT END HERE This story does not end for as long as our heroes labour and their patience is not exhausted. They are now pursuing more adventures. Having bought an early 20th century olive oil mill in one of Urla's villages they plan to move it next to the factory and get that back into working order as well. This way we shall be able to compare the methods used by two olive factories separated by an age gap of 2500 years. They also want to build a miniature workshop for children on the site. The children will bring along their own olives, and working collectively in the traditional way will grind the olives to a pulp in the mills. They will tighten the presses and leave it to rest in glass filters with taps; then bottle the extracted oil and stick on labels that they themselves have designed. In this way they will get to know nature; the thing they have produced, and the value of their labour. The sacred liquid from the immortal tree will never be missing from their lives. * Artun Unsal, the Track of the Immortal Tree, Yapi Kredi Yayinlari. We thank Prof. Dr. Guven Bakir of Ege University's Department of Archaeology for providing the information used in this article. |
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