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The vase pictured here is an Ancient Greek one
known as the "Olive Harvest Vase."
This piece was painted in the Black Figure style of Greek pottery,
probably by the Antimenes Painter, and dates to between 530-510
BCE (Before Common Era).
It was excavated in Italy from the Etruscan city
of Vulci and currently resides at the British Museum in London.
As its name connotes, this vase depicts an Ancient Greek olive harvest.
Men can be seen swatting the
tree with poles, shaking the
upper branches of the tree (from inside its canopy), and gathering
olives from the ground.
The finest olive oil in antiquity was made from
olives just as they hit peak ripeness. Thus, the ancient olive harvest
began in November or December.
As many modern olive farmers can attest, one
of the dangers of harvesting
ripe olives is that you often have to contend with the wind and
rain which have the potential to knock a large percentage of the
crop on the ground, where it
is of little use to anyone other than the birds.
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