HARVESTING THE OLIVES

Attic black-figure amphora attributed to the Antimenes Painter
520BC.  h. 16" (40cm.)

© Trustees of the British Museum



Today the ways in which olives are harvested range all the way from careful, highly labour-intensive hand-picking to the use of huge mechanical harvesters.

This scene from an Attic amphora shows how the Athenians harvested their olives in the sixth century BC. The painter has depicted four harvesters: two youths and two bearded older men. One youth sits high in the central tree, beating the branches with a stick; another young boy kneels on the ground as he collects the fallen olives and puts them in a basket. The two older men, holding long sticks for knocking the olives from the tree, seem to keep a close watch on  the two younger men; olives that are knocked like this can be damaged, and in particular the man on the right may be watching how carefully the boy sorts and selects the harvest.

These large and beautifully decorated  amphoras, containing the finest oil, were often presented as prizes at the Panathenaic Games. From the olive harvest scene here, it seems likely that this vessel would have served such a purpose.
 
You can read more about this amphora here, on the website of the British Museum.