The Vineyard, the Vintage, and the Making of Wine in the Ancient Orient. 5? 



feet {darak, TJI'l or -1312?) ', which was the more general custom, 

 or by means of laying heavy stones on the grapes, or finally, 

 by means of levers. The pressed wine flowed from i\\Q pura 

 into the yeqeb, which was connected with the piira by a 

 channel (nlDi)). Whenever desired, this channel could be 

 stopped up ^yit) in order to get a closed vat called na 

 T\Z)^'^ti. Wherever there were more wine- vats, the first ser- 

 ved the purpose of letting the pressed wine settle the lees 2, 

 and then the clarified juice was allowed to run into a second 

 vat. The grape-juice was then poured into jars 3, or into 

 skins ^ It was allowed to ferment in them, which commenced 

 within six to twelve hours. It was also laid for some time 

 on yeast. Then the new wine was poured into other jars or 

 skins. The wine at that stage was called "yeast-wine" ^ 

 According to Luke, 5, 39 by this procedure the wine grew 

 milder. Sometimes they waited until the next year, when the 

 second fermentation set in, in order to transfuse it into other 

 jars or skins. The wine was filtered before being used (Q-'-ipip 

 DippT^)^. A piece of cloth, or willow-work, served as sieve. 

 For this purpose in Rabbinic times a certain kind of siphon 

 was used which consisted of a long and a short hollow glass- 

 tube. They were put together at an oblique angle, while a 

 hole was permitting communication with both. One end of 

 the siphon was placed into the full wine-jar and the second 

 into the vessel or wine-skin into which the wine was desired 

 to flow. The wine was drawn (nbSTl) from one vessel into 

 the other with the mouth being placed at the hole of the 

 bend. This kind of siphon seems to be identical with the 



1) Is. 16,^ 10; 63, 2; Jer. 25, 30; 48, 33. 



2) In Talmudic times, and probably much earlier, the skins ard the 

 grape- seeds, which renrained at the bottom of the vat were formed by hand 

 into loaves or balls. According to their form they were eithei called "bread". 

 (Qn^) or "apple" (niBn). These were placed into pits (ni^O^ia) and covered 

 with boards, on which were placed heavy clay-rollers (I'^bisy), which had the 

 form of a mill-stone. The pressing-beam (n"i1p) finally was lowered and 

 pressed against the boards, causing the juice that remained in the lees to flow 

 forth. See Krauss, S., Talmudische Archaologie., Band II, pi 235. 



3) Jer. 13, 12 ff., 48, II. 



4) Jos. 9, 4- 13; Job 32, 19; Matth. 9, 17. 



5) Jer, 48, 11; Zeph. i, 12; Is. 25, 6. 6) Is. 25, 6; Jer. 48, 11. 



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