Comments on Dr. Claude Mariottini - Professor of Old Testament: Olives and Olive Oil in Antiquity

Thanks for the suggestion. My discussion of the p...

2008-09-11T23:39:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the suggestion. My discussion of the price of olive oil at Ugarit was in the context of the interpretation of KTU 4.710, a "shipper" or perhaps an "invoice" for wheat, olives and olive oil. The tablet has a raft of problems. Not the least is the fact that it is not written in the standard Ugaritic cuneiform alphabet but likely a shorter cuneiform alphabet that is a close cousin to the standard one. But the price of olive oil plays into the interpretation of the tablet. I've thought about publishing some of this material in a more conventional way but at my age and station I'm not sure it is worth the effort. If you are interested, the main post is "Wheat and Olives for the House of Yatiru" and the post is supported by a detailed discussion of the tablet in a PDF file. It is in this file that I discuss the price of olive oil.

Dear Sister Mary,Olive oil is a wonderful thing. ...

2008-09-11T16:05:00.000-05:00

Dear Sister Mary,

Olive oil is a wonderful thing. I love eating olives and I enjoy olive oil in my food. I am happy to know that you enjoy my blog. I hope others will enjoy reading what I write.

Claude Mariottini

I thoroughly enjoyed these 2 posts and the links o...

2008-09-11T15:12:00.000-05:00

I thoroughly enjoyed these 2 posts and the links on the Olive.

I fell in love with the olive tree when I studied in Italy 1978-1981. I even had a tree, hoping for fruit, but a sudden freeze in Texas killed it.

Your site is very interesting!

Duane,Thank you for this information. I did not k...

2008-09-11T10:11:00.000-05:00

Duane,

Thank you for this information. I did not know that had a commodity market in Ottoman Jerusalem. Have you published your work on the price of olive at Ugarit? If not, I think you should.

P.S. I saw you birthday card. Happy birthday.

Claude Mariottini

Claude,Two very interesting posts. In enjoyed Age...

2008-09-10T17:09:00.000-05:00

Claude,

Two very interesting posts. In enjoyed Agelarakis' remarks. Thanks. There's a fascinating book by Amnon Cohen, Economic Life in Ottoman Jerusalem, that deals with commodity markets in Ottoman Jerusalem. He worked with extremely detailed records starting in October 1548 and continuing through April 1599. These records give nearly daily prices for olive oil and a few other commodities (meat, soap, flour and bread) from the official Sūq al-Sultan in Jerusalem. There was also an illegal black market for olive oil. The records show tax allocations for olive trees. The Ottomans taxed rūmānī trees (old trees, assumed to be from Roman times) and islāmī trees (trees planted during the Islamic period) at different rates. They even had an olive oil futures market of sorts. Not only was olive oil used for light and in cooking, it was also a major ingredient in soap.

I once tried to use this data and Cohen's interpretation of it to understand olive oil pricing variations at Ugarit where we have a couple tablets that imply such prices. Prices at Ugarit are stated in equivalent shekels of silver. The prices, when restated in terms of percentage changes, at Ugarit seem to have varied within the range one sees in the Jerusalem data. I have some methodological problems with my own analysis but I do think the Jerusalem material is useful in understanding how these markets worked in a pre-industrial economy.

By the way, about an hour ago, I scanned a slide of an Iron Age olive press from Gezer. It was uncovered in 1971. I may post it in a day or two.