Olive oil press from the Minoan Age

Grooved olive oil press of the minoan age from the Palace of Phaistos. After being pulverised in a mill, the olives are put into net bags or scourtins, then piled up over a grooved stone and pressed by a weighted wooden beam so that the oil seeps out and runs around the groove into a receiving tank. this represents archaeological evidence for connections between the Santorini eruption and the Cretan olive industry in the Late Bronze Age.