Invention, Tinkering, or Transfer?

Abstract

The production of wine and olive oil was a major activity within the Roman economy, and therefore innovations to the press mechanisms used are of great importance. Historical discussions have focused on the introduction of a screw, and have assumed that presses throughout the Roman Empire were transformed, with the aim of increasing efficiency, by this single ‘invention’ in the first century BC to first century AD. However, recent archaeological evidence reveals a wider range of innovations, not always involving the use of a screw, and over a much broader period, and shows that press types evolved within regional patterns, rather than uniformly. These innovations can only be understood by considering who initiated and spread them, how, and why. Factors such as the physical weight and durability of press parts, access to skills for ongoing maintenance and repairs, the absence of printed treatises and drawn diagrams, the military and communications networks of the empire, and the social context of ownership and local settlement structures all influenced innovation and its diffusion. A drive to increase production cannot fully explain the patterns of change, and some innovations served other purposes, improving safety or ease of use. Innovations seem to have been developed not by an educated ‘inventor’, but at least partly through day-to-day ‘tinkering’ by local artisans and farmers.