Roman Mills

Canalis et Solea

The canalis et solea was one of the more primitive of the olive crushing devices used by the Romans. In the pictures here you see a tub of olives in which men are using crushing implements to crush the olives. At left, they are using a weighted tool to mash the olives while at right they are using large stone wheels to achieve the same end. At the edge of the tub, there is a vat for catching the oil that is released from this process.

The Trapetum

The trapetum was a revolving device constructed from a heavy stone mortar (moratorium) housing a central pillar (milliarium) and two round millstones (orbes) connected by a long piece of hard wood (cupa).The trapetum was adjustable, so the distance between the orbes and the mortarium could be increased or decreased for milling different sizes of olives.

The Mola Olearia

The mola olearia, or "oil mill," is another crushing device similar in construction to the trapetum. It is comprised of roughly the same elements as the trapetum and looks very similar. Thus, it is very possible that the mola olearia is simply a later version of the trapetum. From the examples of the mola olearia that have been found, it seems plausible that the mola olearia could have been used to crush sacks of olives while the trapetum could have been used to crush free olives.