File:Idalion palace - oil mill - 05. pressing room.jpg

English: In the picture: a south-west look at the olive pressing room in the east of the oil mill in Idalion palace.

The olive oil mill production workshop in Idalion palace was placed in the north-western corner of the palace, and dates to the 4th century BCE (Kition-and-Idalion kingdom era, when the palace functioned as an administrative centre). The two-stages ancient olive oil production process is attested in the mill of Idalion palace, which is one best-preserved olive mill of this type in the Mediterranean: In the first room the olives were crushed, and it included a trapetum – a Latin term for a large basin and two hemispherical millstones attached to a wooden beam and turned in the basin. Two millstones and two pieces of the crushing basin were found in this room, as well as a hard floor which was able to sustain the function of the trapetum. After the first stage, the crushing of the olives, the olives were brought, within circular baskets, to the second room, where the second stage – the pressing – occurred. The baskets were placed one on top of the other under large wooden beams which were used as levers and above circular compression bases. The wooden beams were pushed down by heavy stone weights; under the pressure, the oil leaked to the circular bases, from which it flowed to large containers. Two of the bases (one was removed in antiquity) and 16 weights were found in this room, in addition to a well that provided water (which was necessary to this process).

The oil mill also complex contained hearths close to a bench with two storage vessels on either side.