Millstones of Aswan granite found on the island of Elephantine, Egypt

Millstones of Aswan red granite found on the
island of Elephantine, Egypt
STEFANIE WEFERS & FRITZ MANGARTZ
Wefers, S. & Mangartz, F. 2014. Millstones of Aswan red granite found on the island of Elephantine, Egypt. AmS-Skrifter 24,
83–96, Stavanger. ISSN 0800-0816, ISBN 978-82-7760-158-8
In 2011, the millstones of Elephantine Island were documented. Elephantine belongs to the area of red granite at Aswan (the old
city of Syene), which is mainly famous for its monumental building stones – e.g. the unfinished obelisk – but also provided a hard
rock that served for making millstones. Therefore, it is not surprising that all the Elephantine millstones are made from red granite.
There are signs of quarrying on Elephantine, but no special millstone extraction sites could be identified. However, the presence of
roughouts within the documented millstones proves their production on the site, maybe also from thereabouts. Seven Olynthiantype top stones, of which two are roughouts and two are stones left in an early stage of work, were recorded – Olynthian-type lower
stones have not been found. Amongst the rotating millstones, there is a type not yet described for Egypt: we call them pseudoPompeian-type millstones. Their cylindrical top stones reach up to 60 cm in diameter, amongst the five bell-shaped lower stones,
there is only one roughout. For the reconstruction, we suggest a design similar to the German “Haltern-Rheingönheim” millstones.
The pseudo-Pompeian-type millstones seem to date from Late Antique to early medieval times but could have been in use for a
much longer period. Only one rotary quern was found on Elephantine. Two top stones of edge-runners served as mills for crushing
olives and three huge granite beams were used as foundations for oil presses.
Stefanie Wefers, i3mainz, Institute for Spatial Information and Surveying Technology, University of Applied Sciences, Lucy-Hillebrand-Straße 2, D-55128 Mainz, Germany. Phone: (+49) 6131 628 1471. E-mail: Stefanie.wefers@fh-mainz.de
Fritz Mangartz, Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Forschungsbereich für Vulkanologie, Archäologie und Technikgeschichte,
An den Mühlsteinen 7, D-56727 Mayen, Germany. Phone: (+49) 02651–70060–10. E-mail: mangartz@rgzm.de
Keywords: pseudo-Pompeian-type millstone, Olynthian-type mill, Elephantine, Egypt, Aswan red granite, edge-runner, oil press
Introduction
In January 2011, we had the possibility to not only study
an early Byzantine workshop, which manufactured
stone bowls from diorite on Elephantine but also to set
up an inventory of the millstones which were found on
Elephantine. This paper will present the millstones and
other stone artefacts related to food production. The
stones will be described by type and reconstructions
will be presented. There are several roughouts among
the Elephantine millstones, which are proof of local
millstone production on Elephantine itself and maybe
also on the East Bank of the Nile – in the vicinity of
today’s Aswan. In this way, they are important for
answering the question of where Egyptian millstones
came from in Antiquity. Additionally, the inventory
shows a good sample of the millstones and other artefacts that were used in Roman, Late Antique and early
Byzantine Egypt (Table 1).
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State of research
Aside from a short paper by Dimitri Meeks, only
scattered information on millstones in ancient Egypt
is available (e.g. Petrie 1917:58, Hönigsberg 1962,
Willerding & Wolf 1990:265–266, Meyer 1995:216,
222–223, Meeks 1997). As in other places in the world,
millstones have not been commonly included in publications and excavation reports. However, we know of
grinding stones, mostly saddle querns, which were
used in the Pharaonic period, but as already mentioned
by W.M.F. Petrie (1917:58) there is no indication for the
use of rotary querns in this period. In fact, rotary querns
might have been introduced as late as in Roman times,
from this time different types were used in settlements
as well as in ore mines (Meeks 1997:20–25). Olynthiantype millstones seem to be in use after Greek colonies
were established in the Nile delta, but an inventory of
dated pieces, which would prove this assumption, is
Stefanie Wefers & Fritz Mangartz
Fig. 1. Geological map of the area around Aswan. The two dotted symbols represent the red granite and diorite outcrops. From
Klemm & Klemm (1993:306–307, Fig. 355).
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AmS-Skrifter 24 Millstones of Aswan red granite found on the island of Elephantine, Egypt
Table 1. Artefact types identified in January 2011 on
Elephantine Island, Egypt.
Artefact type
Olynthian-type
millstones
Top stones total /
roughouts or left
in an early stage
of production
Lower stones total /
roughouts or left in
an early stage of
production
7/4
-/-
Pseudo-Pompeiantype millstones
9/-
5/1
Edge-runners
2/-
-/-
Oil presses
Oil presses do not have
top stones in general
3/-
still missing (Meeks 1997:21). Olynthian-type millstones are not rotary stones (see the reconstruction
Fig. 4). They consist of a big, flat lower stone and a top
stone, which has the shape of a flattened cuboid, with
a surface sloping from both the longer edges down to
the middle axis of the cuboid. The ends of the slopes
form the borders of a central slot in the lower side of
this top stone. From this slot, the treated grains enter
the surface between top and lower stone, where they
are milled by moving the top stone back and forth.
This movement is assisted by a wooden beam, which is
fixed to the top stone and at the bar’s fulcrum. Just as
in the case of saddle and rotary querns, the appearance
of Olynthian-type millstones in contexts of ore mines,
for example the gold mines of Ouadi Fawakhir, indicate
that they were not only used for grinding cereals (Meeks
1997:21). As some of the Olynthian-type millstones
were found in Roman contexts, they seem to have been
in use for several centuries. Edge-runners are vertical
millstones that run, mostly by pairs, on the big round
lower stone like wheels (see Fig. 12, 40 600–25 for two
top stones; in this case, they are re-used lower stones,
as can be seen from the concave circular polishing
traces on their surfaces). Edge-runners are known from
the Roman period and until modern times; deducing
from contemporary witnesses, they seem to have been
used for olive oil production. The production of the
edge-runners out of columns of Pharaonic temples
is attested. Last but not least, according to literature,
Pompeian-type millstones, as well as composite or
segmented millstones of the Delian-type, seem to be
very rare in Egypt (Meeks 1997, Peacock 2013:154).
would be best suited for the production of millstones
since volcanic rocks have formation conditions that
could produce highly porous and simultaneously strong,
hard rocks. Porosity makes a stone self-sharpening,
making it suitable for millstones. This can be shown by
several production sites, e.g. the Eastern Eifel region in
Germany (Mangartz 2008). Only few types of basalt,
predominantly dating to the Upper Oligocene, can
be found north of Fayum, near Abu Roash (WilliamsThorpe & Thorpe 1993:273–277 and Table 3) and in the
area around Cairo. However, all these types of basalt
seem not to be vesicular and thus not really suitable
for the production of millstones, but they were used as
building stones, particularly in the era of the pyramids
(Klemm & Klemm 1993:9). Furthermore, looking at the
Nile valley, the centre of all Egyptian civilisations, and
adjacent areas, there are, for example, Nile deposits as
well as shale and marine limestone, none of which are
suitable for millstones. Better-suited materials for millstone production are the hard rocks found on the East
Bank of the Nile, for example, also around Aswan –
these are red granites and diorites. Used as millstones,
these rocks stay sharp because of the harder quartz
crystals in the rock, which provide a rough surface if
maintained regularly.
Geology
A generalised geological map clearly shows that there
are almost no volcanic rocks to hand in Egypt (Harrell
& Storemyr 2009). Some specimens of this kind of rock
85
Fig. 2. Typically Roman wedge mark rows (black arrows) on a
small island in front of Elephantine Island. Length of the right
row ca. 400 cm. Photo: Stefanie Wefers.
Stefanie Wefers & Fritz Mangartz
Fig. 3. Millstone quarry marks on remains of one of the Naoi of the Chnum temple on Elephantine Island. At the other side of the
block, a millstone is marked out, probably an edge-runner. Length of block ca. 130 cm. Photo: Fritz Mangartz.
Due to its domelike structure, south and southeast of Aswan on the east bank of the Nile, a small
Precambrian area of red granite and diorite crops out
of the surrounding younger Nubian Sandstone. This
area is especially known for its unique red granite,
which is still quarried today and it is in great demand
for veneer and revetment. The southern limit of this
granite massif is located approximately at the location of the Aswan Low Dam, delimited in the southwest by Gebel el-Kurur and in the southeast by Gebel
el-Shellal. red granite also exists on the island of
Elephantine and on surrounding smaller islands. All
in all, the entire area of the granite quarries comprises
about 20 km2, with small areas of overlying Nubian
Sandstone. Not only building blocks but well-known
sarcophagi, statues, and obelisks were produced from
the granite (Fig. 1) (Klemm & Klemm 1993:305–308).
However, in different regions of the old world granite
is also a known rock used for millstones – although
it is not always the best choice (e.g. Boyer & Fronteau
2011, Wefers 2012). Furthermore, as heavy goods, like
millstones, were commonly and preferably traded
by waterways, it was very likely to identify millstone
production in the Aswan granite region. Therefore,
86
it is not very astonishing that there are several
millstone roughouts on the island of Elephantine.
Elephantine
The island Elephantine is an island of red granite in
the Nile directly opposite Aswan, which is located on
the East Bank close behind the first Nile cataract and
is a city with a long history. It was already populated in
pre-dynastic times, as well as during the Old, Middle,
and New Kingdoms and later periods until Byzantine
times. Due to its important strategic location at the
border between Egypt and Nubia, Aswan was fortified
during several periods. Today, there is a Nubian village
on Elephantine.
The temples of Satis and Chnum are well known;
Satis is the goddess of the Nile flood, and Chnum is
her assistant. The Chnum temple seems to have been
founded by Mentuhotep II (around 2050 BC), and
building continued until Antoninus Pius (AD 138–161).
At the end of the pagan cult, most likely at the end of
the 4th century AD (plundering AD 391/392?), first the
Chnum temple lay waste (Felix Arnold, Cairo, pers.
AmS-Skrifter 24 Millstones of Aswan red granite found on the island of Elephantine, Egypt
comm.). Subsequently, its material – including not
only stone but also metal – was re-used, also for millstones in the village that developed on Elephantine in
the 5th and 6th century AD. Multi-storeyed dwellings
with small courtyards were built inside and around
the former Chnum temple. The village seems to have
been populated until the 10th century AD (Arnold
2003:17–18).
Red granite and diorite was quarried on the East
Bank, more quarries were found on Elephantine itself
(Klemm & Klemm 1993:310) and on a small island
west of Elephantine (Fig. 2). The traces of quarrying in
the geological granite deposits on both islands can be
dated to Roman times due to the typical style of wedge
marks. Unfortunately, no special millstone extraction
sites could be identified on Elephantine. However, the
mentioned granite roughouts show that millstones
must have been produced on Elephantine. The only
evidence for millstone extraction could be identified
on the building debris of the Chnum temple (Fig. 3).
Figure 3 shows typical Roman wedge marks, and a
circular preparatory drawing on the upper face of this
stone makes it clear that the aim was to produce a millstone or edge-runner. Nevertheless, it is hardly imaginable that all millstones on the island were produced
from the building blocks of the Chnum temple.
Mainly two types of roughouts were discovered on
the island: Olynthian-type and pseudo-Pompeiantype. These will be discussed in more detail below.
Discovered millstone types
Olynthian-type millstones
First, there are top stones of Olynthian-type millstones (Robinson & Graham 1938: 331–332), with a
slot in the centre to fill in the mill charge, and used in
a back and forth movement on top of a plate-like lower
Fig. 4. Reconstruction of an Olynthian-type millstone by Kuno Menchen, Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum. Photo: Fritz
Mangartz.
87
Stefanie Wefers & Fritz Mangartz
stone driven by a beam (e.g. Runnels 1981). They are
all about 40 cm wide, around 50 cm long or a bit less,
and up to 25 cm high. They are similar to the leveroperated Olynthus mill type I.1, as mentioned by R.
Frankel (2003:8–9) and A. Arribas’ type 1, which is
“[...] well-made and smoothly finished with a raised
edging on the upper surface [...]” (Williams-Thorpe
& Thorpe 1990:116–117). A. Arribas designated two
types of Olynthian-type millstones on the basis of the
finds from the Greek merchant ship of Sec in Palma
Bay (Arribas 1987:563–573). However, on Elephantine,
it is not possible to reconstruct where these Olynthiantype millstones were found exactly and therefore it is
not possible to date them by associated finds. Referring
to Petrie (1917:58) they seem to have been in use in
Egypt only from Roman times until Byzantine times.
Raphael Frankel’s studies of the Mediterranean have
shown that Olynthian-type millstones were already
in use in the 7th century BC (Frankel 2003:6–8). All
Fig. 5. Top stones
of Olynthiantype millstones
documented
on the island of
Elephantine: a)
17 500–14, b)
17 500–15, c) 17
500–16, d) 40
600–17, e) 40
600–18, f) 17
800–10, g) 40
600–24. Scale is
50 cm. Drawings:
Fritz Mangartz,
Stefanie Wefers
and Monika
Weber (RömischGermanisches
Zentralmuseum).
in all, concerning the Olynthian-type millstones from
Elephantine and Aswan it is only possible to give
a rough estimation of their dating, which could be
anywhere from the last centuries before Christ until
medieval times (Meeks 1997:21).
At first sight, they appear to be very heavy which first
evoked doubt as to whether to interpret these stones
as Olynthian-type millstones. However, taking into
account that the beam might have been very long, it is
not a big problem to move such a heavy Olynthian-type
millstone by hand. A reconstruction made by Kuno
Menchen (Fig. 4) obviously proves that it can even be
driven by children; how arduous and difficult it was to
use these kinds of millstones basically depended on the
length of the beam.
On Elephantine, we documented seven Olynthiantype top stones of Aswan red granite (Fig. 5a-g). Two of
them are roughouts: one was broken during production
(Fig. 5e), the other one shows a crack-line, which was
40 600–17
17 500–14
17 500–15
17 500–16
50 cm
40 600–18
17 800–10
40
17500–14
17500–14
600–24
88
AmS-Skrifter 24 Millstones of Aswan red granite found on the island of Elephantine, Egypt
Fig. 6. Top stones of Olynthian-type millstones stored in a deposit in Aswan. Photo: Fritz Mangartz.
obviously the reason why it was not finished (Fig. 5f).
Both of them are only worked from one side and do not
show the finished slot which would be necessary for an
operable top stone verifying that Olynthian-type top
stones were produced here on Elephantine Island. The
other five top stones have a finished slot, but only three
of them have the finished incisions for fixing them to a
beam (Fig. 5b, c and g) – as it is necessary for an operable Olynthian-type mill. One of the three finished
stones has clearly been used (Fig. 5g), while the other
two do not show signs of use and seem to have been left
in an early stage of work, which is a further indication
of millstone production on Elephantine.
In recent years, several excavations have taken
place in the modern city of Aswan. The stones found
during these excavations are stored in a central place
(Isis temple), where we only managed to have a glance
at them as there was no time for closer investigation.
Amongst other things, there are a dozen top stones from
Olynthian-type millstones (Fig. 6). Some of them have a
missing slot, indicating that they are not finished. They
are evidence for the production of Olynthian-type mills
not only on Elephantine but also in the granite deposits
of Aswan itself. However, up to now no lower stones
from Olynthian-type millstones have been identified.
89
Pseudo-Pompeian-type millstones
The second type of mill found on Elephantine and in
Aswan is a rotating mill with cylindrical top stones at
diameters between 55 cm and slightly more than 60 cm.
Their maximum height is 40 cm. As their inner shape
is similar to Pompeian style mills but their outer shape
is not, we have called them pseudo-Pompeian-type
millstones (Fig. 7). This type of mill is not described in
Dimitri Meeks’ paper (Meeks 1997).
The top stone’s outer shape is not like an hourglass,
which would be typical for Pompeian style mills, but
rather it is cylindrical. On two opposed sides, rectangular zones are carved out, protruding from the cylindrical elementary form of the mill. In the centre of
only one of these rectangular zones, there is always a
square hole. Two smaller holes are at right angles to
this square hole. One millstone obviously shows that
it was used for a longer period, since the lower part of
the normally rectangular zone is already gone (Fig. 7f).
The lower stones belonging to these pseudoPompeian-type millstones are bell-shaped, massive,
and have a square hole in the middle (Fig. 8a-e). Their
diameters also range between 50 and 60 cm. One interesting piece is stored in a depot in Aswan (Fig. 9). It is
a double or bi-bell-shaped lower stone. That means it
Stefanie Wefers & Fritz Mangartz
Fig. 7. Top stones of pseudo-Pompeiantype millstones: a) 24 200–5, b) 40
700–14, c) 40 600–20, d) 40 500–8, e)
17 800–11, f) 17 500–9, g) 17 500–13,
h) 24 200–4, i) 24 200–3. Scale is 50
cm. Drawings: Fritz Mangartz, Stefanie
Wefers and Monika Weber (RömischGermanisches Zentralmuseum).
24 200–5
40 700–14
40 600–20
50 cm
40 500–8
17 800–11
24 200–4
17 500–13
90
17 500–9
24 200–3
50 cm
AmS-Skrifter 24 Millstones of Aswan red granite found on the island of Elephantine, Egypt
Fig. 8. Lower stones of
pseudo-Pompeian-type
millstones: a) 40 700–7,
b) 24 200–1, c) 17
800–12, d) 40 600–23,
e) 24 200–2. Scale is
50 cm. Drawings: Fritz
Mangartz, Stefanie
Wefers and Monika
Weber (RömischGermanisches
Zentralmuseum).
17 800–12
40 700–7
24 200–4
50 cm
40 600–23
24 200–2
Fig. 10. Reconstruction drawing of a pseudo-Pompeian-type
millstone with a spindle fixed in the lower stone. The top stone
is turned by one or two persons using the wooden beam affixed
to the top stone by timberwork, wedges, and which is also fitted
into an incision on the upper side of the top stone. Drawings:
Fritz Mangartz and Stefanie Wefers.
Fig. 9. Bi-bell-shaped lower stone of a pseudo-Pompeian-type
millstone. Length of artefact ca. 80 cm. Photo: Stefanie Wefers.
91
Stefanie Wefers & Fritz Mangartz
Fig. 11. Circular
track in clay
ground, indicating
the place of
installation of a
millstone. Diameter
of stone circle ca. 70
cm. From Arnold
(2003:Table 31a).
could not have been in use but must be an unfinished
roughout.
The lower parts of the lower stones are irregular and
not of a special shape. Besides planar bases (Fig. 8d),
they also have bulky and crude lower sides (Fig. 8c).
Especially the latter stones must have been inserted
into a foundation or basement to allow proper handling. The upper part is always bell-shaped, with a
square hole about 6 cm deep in the centre. Only one
40 600–27
40 600–28
40 600–29
50 cm
40 600–24
40 600–25
92
Fig. 12. Edge-runners and
foundations of oil or wine
presses: a) 40 600–27, b) 40
600–28, c) 40 600–29, d)
40 600–21, e) 40 600–25.
Scale is 50 cm. Drawings:
Fritz Mangartz, Stefanie
Wefers and Monika Weber
(Römisch-Germanisches
Zentralmuseum).
AmS-Skrifter 24 Millstones of Aswan red granite found on the island of Elephantine, Egypt
Fig. 13. Reconstruction drawing of two different oil or wine presses with stone weight. From Peña Cervantes (2010:52).
93
Stefanie Wefers & Fritz Mangartz
Fig. 14. Oil or wine press with screw or wedges. From Peña Cervantes (2010:51, Fig. 3).
of five lower stones on Elephantine is an unfinished
roughout (Fig. 8d).
For the reconstruction of these millstones, we suggest
a design based on slow-driven millstones known under
the eponym “Haltern/Rheingönheim” (Baatz 1995:11–
12). A wooden beam is put on top of the upper stone,
fitted into an incision and protruding over the outer
rim of the top stone to serve as handles. This beam
is fixed to the top stone by two vertical wooden bars
inserted into the two opposed holes. To adjust the top
stone, wooden wedges could be used to lift the catillus
a few millimeters. The horizontal beam contains the
vertical pivot, which is fixed in the central rectangular
hole of the lower stone (Fig. 10). The mill charge was
poured in from above while one or two persons were
turning the top stone. However, it cannot be excluded
that donkeys were used to turn the mill.
All in all, since these pseudo-Pompeian-type millstones are quite heavy and bulky, it is obvious that
they were stationary. Furthermore, one lower stone
on Elephantine is still left at its find spot, which is in
a Byzantine dwelling to the northwest of the Chnum
temple. There is secondary evidence inside a Late
Antique to early medieval dwelling to the north of
the Chnum temple that argues strongly for a second
pseudo-Pompeian-style mill, despite the fact that
neither the lower nor the top stone are preserved: a
94
circular track in the clay ground seems to be the result
of a person or an animal moving in a circle for a significant length of time (Fig. 11). This would suggest that
this was a place where a pseudo-Pompeian-style mill
had been installed.
The lower stone that is still located in the dwelling
could be dated to the 5th century AD. The place
where a pseudo-Pompeian-style mill was installed
could be dated to the 9th century AD (F. Arnold, pers.
comm.). However, that does not mean that all pseudoPompeian-type mills were used between the 5th and
9th century AD. It is assumed that these mills were in
use much longer. For example, undocumented sources
indicate that in the Nubian village on Elephantine this
kind of mill is still in use today!
We found only one rotary quern on Elephantine and,
interestingly, none in Aswan. It has a diameter of 37.5
cm, a height of 16 cm and, just as the other millstones,
it is made up of red granite. As it is part of the garden
of the museum, no information on its discovery or
dating could be found. However, rotary querns have
been produced here at least from Roman times; for
example, all of the seven querns found in Didymoi, a
castle on the caravan road between Koptos (Nile River)
and Myos Hormos (Red Sea), were composed of Aswan
red granite, with diameters between 30 and 40 cm.
The presence of an Olynthian-type mill at Didymoi is
AmS-Skrifter 24 Millstones of Aswan red granite found on the island of Elephantine, Egypt
remarkable and shows that this old-style mill was in use
for a very long time (Jean-Pierre Brun, pers. comm.).
Edge-runners
Two top stones from edge-runners were found on the
island of Elephantine (Fig. 12d-e). Both of them have a
flat cylindrical shape with a square hole in the middle.
The smaller one has a diameter of 104 cm, the bigger
one has a diameter of 116 cm, and both of them are
25 cm thick. Their edge surface is slightly bowed and
extremely polished, the latter indicating intensive use.
Interestingly, the inner surfaces of the upper and lower
sides are polished, too. Presumably, these top stones
were re-used as the lower stones of edge-runners.
The two edge-runners from Elephantine are very
similar to objects found in Faiyum and published
by P. Hönigsberg. His schematic sketch gives a good
impression of their function: standing upright, they
are turned by a long, protruding beam, which is fixed
in the square hole in the middle of the edge-runner.
A second wooden beam is vertically aligned in a horizontal stone below and in the ceiling above prevents
the edge-runner, which leans against this vertical beam
and is therefore slightly tilted, from toppling over.
Since the vertical beam is pierced by the horizontal
beam or handle respectively, the first one is also the
centre of rotation. The function of these edge-runners
was to crush olives but not to produce oil since the
lower stones do not have any receptacle or device
to collect the oil (Hönigsberg 1962:71–74, Fig. 73).
Oil presses
Three further stone objects that were found in the
immediate vicinity of the Satet temples have to be
related to the edge-runners mentioned above, since
they represent the next step in production. The specific
objects are quite huge and very likely were formerly
used as roof beams in one of the temples. After its
abandonment, the huge building blocks were re-used
as foundations with two square holes, each worked
through the whole block (Fig. 12a-c). Only one of the
three objects gives a clear sign of its purpose: a circular
channel and spout, a typical attribute of oil presses
(Fig. 12c). Furthermore, the circumstances of the discovery of this object can be reconstructed since all
these heavy objects were obviously gathered not long
ago at the northern border of today’s excavation area.
At least one of these objects, which is the foundation
95
with circular channel and spout, was discovered during
the 20th and 21st field season when an area west of the
garden of the museum on Elephantine was investigated. Unfortunately, this press foundation, in addition
to other architectural objects was found in a disordered
stratum. Presumably, this stratum resulted from the
demolition of a temple of Amenophis III and a temple
of Ramses II, ordered by the governor of Aswan in 1822
for the exploitation of building materials (Bommas
1995:1–2, Fig. 1, Kaiser et al. 1995:146–147). Thus, it
is not possible to date the press foundations. However,
based on the assumption that they were formerly roof
beams, they must have been produced and used after
the demolition of quite a sizeable Pharaonic building.
There are two possible reconstructions for these press
foundations. The first is characterised by a wooden
beam, which is fixed to a vertical gallows construction
at one end. The other end is fixed to a stone weight. The
press is located between these two ends of the wooden
beam. The stone weight allows pressure to be applied
either by pulling it down with a lever or by turning a
screw (Fig. 13) (Peña Cervantes 2010:42–47, 51–52, Fig.
3, 5, 6, 276). However, since no stone weight typical for
this kind of press has been found, a second reconstruction possibility is preferred. Figure 14 shows a schematic
sketch and gives a good impression of the construction
and use. The container for the crushed olives is situated between two vertical beams, which are connected
by a horizontal beam – creating a rather solid gallows
construction. A vertical wooden screw can be used to
apply pressure to the olives that have prepared by the
edge-runners. Usually, the crushed olives are spread
out on mats of palm leaves and, by piling up about 20
of these prepared mats under the screw, the oil can be
extracted (Hönigsberg 1962).
Discussion
Four roughouts of Olynthian-type mills, one of a
pseudo-Pompeian-type mill and two unfinished oil
presses were noted on Elephantine. All in all, the quarries of Aswan show a huge array of products, of not
only Pharaonic and Roman but also of Late Antique
and Byzantine times. Especially in Late Antique and
Byzantine times, building blocks of the Pharaonic
temples on Elephantine were re-used. As a result, a
small village developed around the Chnum temple
where small workshops could be found, processing
nonferrous metal and stone. However, millstones were
also produced on the East Bank, as several roughouts
Stefanie Wefers & Fritz Mangartz
found in Aswan attest. Further investigations of these
Late Antique and Byzantine millstones would be
useful for answering the following questions: in which
time period were the millstones produced and used? Is
it possible to locate the quarries for the millstones on
the East Bank? Where and when were rotary querns
produced in the area of Aswan? How far were the millstones traded?
Acknowledgements
The kind invitation of the Swiss Institute for Egyptian
Architectural and Archaeological Research in Cairo
and of the German Archaeological Institute Cairo
department to Elephantine made this research possible.
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