Just like in ancient Greece, in modern Greece, the gathering of the olives hasn’t drastically changed and it is still one of the most important agricultural activities in the Mediterranean.
According to the traditional way of gathering, the branches of the olive trees are “combed” so that the olives are pulled and fall on special nets that lay on the ground. Afterwards, the olives are gathered into sacks and then they are taken to the olive press. For the tall branches, in order to facilitate the gathering, there can be used ladders or long sticks to hit the branches. Nowadays, lots of machines are used (vibrational and rotational shaft) that speed up the procedure of the gathering.
Gathering of olives- vase representation
Regarding the process of olive oil production, ancient Greeks used to press the olives by hand while later they invented different machines to assist the process, e.g. the lever of Thirasia, the press of the classic era, Irona’s screw till the creation of “lineones”, organized presses of that era.
Olive press, type “joint press”
Irona’s press with lever and screw