The story of Gideon depicts an action designed to conceal wheat in a gat—a type of installation typically identified by translators as a “wine press.” I would argue that this translation decision may in fact be too specific for the type of installation the author had in mind. An examination of the terms translated as “press,” coupled with an examination of the use of gt at Ugarit, reveals that the word may have simply been a reference to generic farming installations. In addition, if the word in Judges 6 may also be considered a “farming installation,” then the text may preserve an ancient memory of the use of the extensive pitting activity of Iron Age I in the Central Hills of Canaan….
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