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Skerryvore Lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse in all of Scotland. Perched on the rugged southwest coast of Tiree, Hynish Signal Tower and the former Shore Station were built in support of the gigantic lighthouse which stands 11 miles out in the Atlantic.

Built between the 1830s and 1840s, Hynish served as the operational headquarters where workers were housed and supplies were dispatched to the isolated reef before Skerryvore Lighthouse was first illuminated in 1844.

Nearby are the remains of the former barracks where the men building Skerryvore Lighthouse lived for weeks at a time. During fierce Atlantic storms, they reportedly considered the partially completed lighthouse safer than the barracks themselves, choosing to shelter inside its solid granite base until the weather passed.

The Signal Tower itself was far more than an observation post. Before the invention of radio, it formed the only communication link between the mainland and the lighthouse keepers.

Families of lighthouse keepers lived in cottages next to the Signal Tower, built by the Northern Lighthouses Board in the Egyptian Revival style. This was a fashion inspired by Ancient Egypt that became popular in Britain during the early nineteenth century and was seen as incredibly modern in Victorian times.

Each day, the signalman watched the horizon through a telescope, acknowledging semaphore messages by raising a ball on the flagstaff.

One of Hynish's most charming traditions was its unique family signaling system: If a keeper became a father while on duty offshore, a pair of trousers was hoisted to announce the birth of a son, while a dress celebrated the arrival of a daughter.

Today, the beautifully restored Shore Station is home to the Skerryvore Museum, where visitors can discover the extraordinary story of building Scotland's tallest lighthouse, explore the historic harbour, workshops and cottages, and enjoy sweeping views towards Skerryvore itself on a clear day.

The dramatic coastal scenery, rich maritime history and peaceful atmosphere make Hynish one of the country's most rewarding places to visit. Furthermore, this is one of the better preserved examples of 'lighthouse-keepers' villages' that exist in Scotland, let alone that of the tallest lighthouse in Scotland.

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Just two years after he won his first Best Director Oscar, Christopher Nolan is back with a new movie that many are predicting could win him another. Nolan's 2023 biographical thriller Oppenheimer exceeded expectations at the box office, grossing nearly $1 billion worldwide against a reported budget of $100 million. Nolan's latest is The Odyssey , which ties with The Dark Knight Rises as the filmmaker's most expensive movie with a reported budget of $250 million . At that cost, the film would need to gross around $1 billion worldwide in order to qualify as a bona fide blockbuster. And it's certainly off to a fantastic start thanks to a "Certified Fresh" 95% critics' score and a "Verified Hot" 97% audience score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, in addition to an A grade from opening-day audiences on CinemaScore.

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Female farm managers are hidden in plain sight in ancient Roman texts, mentioned in laws, literature and grave inscriptions across five centuries. Modern historians have generally assumed they were housekeepers, in charge of domestic tasks and household meals, and segregated from the productive business of the farm.

My new paper , published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology, challenges this assumption.

In fact, there is evidence to suggest that many Roman female farm managers supervised wine production and other processes vital to farming and profits.

A false lead

A farming manual written by the Roman writer Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella in the 1st century CE is a window to the roles of the female manager.

An upper class landowner himself, Columella lists the responsibilities of farm managers, who were probably enslaved. The male manager was termed the vilicus, and the female manager the vilica, terms derived from their roles at the "villa".

But many historians reading this text have been side-tracked by a false lead: Columella begins his section on the vilica with a long quote from the Greek philosopher Xenophon , who wrote in Athens more than four centuries earlier.

A quote from Greek philosophy led many to misunderstand the roles women played in ancient Roman farming. (Image credit: Mahmoud Amer/Pexels ) The "natural" role of women, according to Xenophon, was to work indoors. Therefore in his discussion, the ideal upper-class married woman is depicted staying inside her town house to supervise the domestic work of the slaves.

The Greek writer is not discussing farm workers. In fact, Columella says four times that these ideas are not his own, but those of Xenophon, writing long ago.

Columella lists a completely different set of responsibilities for the vilica on a Roman farm: most importantly, the making of wine and olive oil, which were highly valuable commodities — the backbone of landowners' profits.

In his description of the vilica's duties, Columella includes the extraction of the juice from grapes during the harvest; adding flavorings and preservatives such as salt, wormwood, fennel or boiled grape-juice; and overseeing successful fermentation into wine.

According to Columella, the vilica also managed the processing of other farm products to make them long-lasting and profitable, such as turning inedible olives into olive oil for sale.

From archaeology we know that production of wine or oil, using huge machines in substantial buildings, could reach 50,000 to 100,000 litres per year, or even more. The vilica was therefore responsible for overseeing large-scale work essential to the operation of the estate.

Calling on the gods

Correct sacrifices to the gods were seen as vital to the success of the farm. Archaeology has uncovered altars for offerings in Roman wine-making buildings.

Wine-making in the Roman world was a precarious process, due to uncontrolled temperatures, bacteria or oxygenation. Wine could easily go moldy or turn into vinegar.

A striking element of Columella's account is that he includes carrying out offerings to avert such a disaster in his instructions for the female farm manager.

Looking for more clues

Other texts contain barely more than a mention of the vilica, revealing only her presence.

But we can still put together some clues.

Legal writings on inheritance, quoting the 1st century BCE jurist Trebatius, include her in the instrumentum fundi — whatever (including enslaved personnel) is required for productive work, gathering and preserving produce of the estate.

A mosaic shows Roman farm women at the Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily. (Image credit: Joe Lynch) Another aristocratic landowner and writer, Cato the Elder , living two centuries before Columella, lists both the female and the male farm manager as essential staff for a vineyard or olive farm.

He devotes only one small section to outlining the female farm manager's tasks, but a close look shows these are not predominantly domestic. Cato includes keeping poultry and processing of seasonal farm products. Although he does include supervision of cleaning, this could refer to maintenance of work spaces such as stables and wine making buildings, an integral part of estate management – and also listed by Columella among the vilica's duties.

Cato also gives the vilica the responsibility for making sacrifices to the gods for the success of the farm. She must regularly offer garlands at the altar "for abundance", he writes.

A Roman mosaic showing estate work in different seasons depicts a scene of sacrifices for abundant crops to the god Jupiter (in his Celtic form as a sky and weather god). A woman is shown holding an offering of garlands, just as Cato instructs. Beside her are a jug for wine offerings and a male figure.

A woman is depicted at an altar holding the offering of garlands. Beside her is a jug for wine offerings and a male figure. (Image credit: Carole Raddato/Musée d'Archéologie Nationale, Saint-Germain-en-Laye/Flickr , CC BY ) Related stories

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Perhaps this mosaic shows the vilica and vilicus, both essential to the success of annual harvests. While such images of female figures are rare, one fragmentary wall painting from Rome shows a female overseeing wine-making workers, just as Columella describes.

This combined body of evidence suggests we should expand outdated understandings of the roles that Roman women played in farm production, the dominant sector of ancient economies.

No vilica has left us an account of her work in her own words. But by paying careful attention to the evidence, we can hear an echo of her voice.

This edited article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

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