This handsome book is an intensive study of all aspects of olive cultivation and oil production in ancient Cyrenaica. It brings together the author's incomparable knowledge of ancient Cyrenaica through the lens of oil production. Much of this is very technical: it begins with an analysis and typology of the components of the presses — mill mortars, counterweight blocks, uprights and press-beds — that will appeal to those who study ancient agricultural technology. The Cyrenaican systems are similar to those in the rest of North Africa but generally smaller in scale. They apparently used smaller baskets that might have allowed two rounds of pressings in the course of a day. Screw presses were absent. There is a clear distinction in the distribution of some of these carefully mapped elements, suggesting that the technology can be defined by micro-regions — in this case the western plain around Benghazi and the northern coast around Cyrene.
More than in most field surveys, the arid nature of Cyrenaica means that a fair proportion of the rural sites have been found, many of them by B. himself. For those not fixated by press technology the sections devoted to land use and settlement are the most valuable part of the book. B. calculates the population of ancient Cyrenaica, at some generic mid-Roman time (chronological precision is in general missing, although he tends to mention late Roman pottery on almost all sites). His calculations are based on Wilson's figure of 200/ha in city sites (in Bowman and Wilson (eds), Settlement, Urbanization and Population, 2011), which gives c. 25,000 for Cyrene, 30,000 for Ptolemais and 3,000–4,000 for the smaller towns of Apollonia, Barce and Hadrianopolis. To these are added estimates for the five villages, at between 20 and 28 people/ha, and for the large and small farms, at between 5 and 10 people each. Summing these figures, adding on 8,000 soldiers and an equal number of nomads, and treating all sites as contemporary, B. arrives at a rough estimate of 333,000 for the population of the whole area, just over half that suggested by Laronde (Cyrène et la Libye Hellénistique, 1987). He then calculates the amount of oil that could have been produced on the presses he recovered, and suggests that it amounts to between 2,650,000 and 3,180,000 litres, perhaps half of what would have been required if one calculates 20 l per head per year. It is thus hardly surprising that amphora kilns, all of which are found on the coast, are few (there are precisely four kiln sites for the middle Roman period) and that the amphorae identified as Cyrenaican are vanishingly rare elsewhere. However, this does not imply that olive-oil production was exclusively for domestic consumption. Sites like Lamluda, on the upper plateau 30 km east of Cyrene, were clearly agrotowns. Here more than 60 uprights and 18 mill mortars were recovered, suggesting an industrial production processing the olives of the farms of the plateau. Wine, too, was produced here, as is shown by a group of sunken dolia. The town grew to a substantial size, including two churches and probable baths. Here, then, is evidence for a regional commercial network, redistributing the oil produced by local farms to the larger sites and cities in the province, probably sold at periodic nundinae. Other sites, with multiple presses, can be defined as oileries, while even the small farms have some evidence for presses. However, apart from a relatively flourishing agriculture on the slim strips of cultivable land, Cyrenaica does not seem to have produced much. Pastoralism on the Jebel Akhdar is probable, which would imply possibly intensive textile production. This may well account for some of the circular vats B. records, which could have been used for dyeing or tanning. The province was not particularly well defended either, which explains Synesius’ continuing references to Libyan raids; it is unclear whether its tax revenue would have justified more troops and more investment in defences.
There is no evidence for élite housing in the villages. Indeed, while, as in Tripolitania, the rural settlement can be divided into open and fortified farms, large and small, there is as yet no evidence for a villa with a pars urbana in the entire province. The elite lived in the towns, not the countryside. We know nothing of the ownership of land, though of course substantial estates can hardly be ruled out. Struggles for land may have been constant: Synesius’ letter 67 shows two local bishops fighting over a tract with vines and fruit trees, attached to a ruined fort. But these are the bishops of two small villages, and it seems unlikely that either was a powerful landowner. Synesius, indeed, is the only estate owner we know of from the period after the earthquake of 365 a.d.
The Appendices list, in perfectly documented detail, every single press element recovered, and, with full-colour photographs and clear plans, the sites recorded. The whole is a testament to B's tenacity and his long engagement with the archaeology of Cyrenaica. How many archaeological reports contain in their project history sentences like ‘My house, in which the material was stored, was fired upon, which forced my family to flee and seek safe refuge in another part of the city. The house was partially destroyed and eventually ransacked, and most of the material was lost.’?
The book would have benefited from more careful proofreading — errors occur even in subtitles like ‘Kiln Kites’ (125) — but this is the only substantive criticism that can be made of the book, and like all the new BILNAS publications it is freely available online.
