56 Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing. 



poor*. The vine-dresser (lilD) cut the grapes (yp^lwith a special 

 knife (nil'OT'a), as was the custom in Egypt. In order to pro- 

 tect the grapes from falling to the ground during the time of 

 the vintage, large baskets (nbD^D) were placed below the vine- 

 stalks. The grapes, which were not used for the making of 

 wine, but were used as raisins, seem not to have been strip- 

 ped by the Hebrews from the stems, but were dried in the 

 bunch, as is the present custom in the district of Malaga in 

 Spain'-. The grapes, which were sold as eating-grapes on the 

 market (pilub ISD) were generally of the white color. 



The grapes were carried to the winepress in baskets, 

 called KdpxaXoc, in the Septuagint (Hebrew C^^iD, NH )'^bO) or 

 in vats (nisipl The winepress {^a//i, na), was situated in the 

 vineyard. It was sometimes covered by a roof^. The con- 

 siderable size of some presses can be gathered from the fact 

 that Gideon was able to use it as a threshing floor, in order 

 to conceal his wheat from the marauding Midianites. The 

 winepress consisted of two, and sometimes three or four, vats 

 which were cut into the rock of the mountain. The vats were 

 either round or angular, or the pressing vat {p/ira, ni^B, Xi-]v6q, 

 acus vinarius, or more specifically n2Vb5^n na, ;rpo>.i]viov) 

 was angular and the lower vat [yeqeb, ap\ NH msnnnn T\\ 

 or "ilD, urToXrjviov) round. The winepress near 'Artuf^ shows 

 the piira in angular form, with two yeqebs also angular, 

 but a fourth and lowest vat had a round form. The press- 

 vat reached a diameter of up to four meters. The winepress 

 at Tell el-Hessy^ exhibits mud-walls, while its flooring is 

 cemented and sloping slightly to a hollowed stone, which was 

 placed in the cement. Prior to pressing, the piira and the 

 yeqeb were carefully washed and cleansed. In Rabbinic times 

 the grapes used ^o be pressed by men (mDTn) hired especially 

 for this work. In the ptira the grapes were trodden with the 



i) Num. 19, 10. Cf. also Sir. 36, i6a and 30, 25 (Smend, Die Weishdt 

 ties Jesus Sirach, Berlin, 1906) "And I have come as one who had tarried 

 ong, like one who gleaneth behind the gatherers of grapes". 



2) I, Sam. 25, 18; 30, 12; II. Sam. 16, i ; I. Chron. 12, 40. 



3) Juiig. 6, II, 



4) Schick, ''Artnf und seine Umgebung, ZDPV, X (1887), pp. 146 fF. 



5) Bliss, A Mound, p. 69. This winepress belongs to the XIII th cent B, 



