What is an Olive? What is its history?
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What is an Olive?
At its most basic, an Olive is the fruit of the Olive Tree. It is a ‘drupe’ which are commonly known, and referred to, as a ‘stone fruits’ which is a type of fruit with a fleshy exterior surrounding a single hard pit or ‘stone’.
Drupes have three layers: A thin outer skin (exocarp), a fleshy or fibrous middle layer (mesocarp), and a hard, woody inner shell (endocarp) that protects the seed.
They are indehiscent which means that they do not naturally split open to release their seeds when ripe. Instead, they rely on natural decay, being eaten and then released by animals or the gradual effects of being exposed to weathering to release their seeds.
Packed full of the compound oleuropein it is intensely bitter, has an extremely low sugar content and a very high oil content varying on the time of harvest and cultivar.
Such characteristics make it a fruit that cannot be consumed directly from the tree – it has to undergo a series of processes. It depends on the cultivar: most are suitable for milling into olive oil but there are around 120-140 cultivars that are classified as edible and these need to be processed via curing, drying, soaking or rinsing depending on local customs and methods.
Somewhat annoyingly, there is one, single, solitary cultivar that we know of that can be eaten directly from the tree, the Thrubolea / Throuba in Greece. Primarily from the Aegean Islands it is the only olive that loses its bitterness and sweetens directly on the tree.
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history of the olive tree?
How long has the olive tree been around? A lot longer than previously thought and most people would think. Way back in the 1st Century AD, Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, A Roman Soldier, Writer and Farmer wrote, “Olea prima omnium arborum est,” “Among all trees the olive is the most important.” This was in De Re Rustica (On Agriculture), the most comprehensive manual and record of Greco Roman farming methods that was written around the time of Christ.
When and where this fascination and appreciation of the olive tree began, really is lost in the mists of time. What can be said with a degree of certainty is that the cultivated olive seems to have originated in the area of the Middle East known as the Levant, likely in modern day Syria. The warm, dry and often humid summers with mild and rainy winters in the region made it ideal for this shallow rooted ancient tree which adapts incredibly well to stony, poor quality soil.
Findings from prehistoric times show that already in the Late Tertiary period, approximately a million years ago, the oleaster, or its ancestor, was being used by early humans, Homo Erectus, near Bologna, where some fossilised leaves have been discovered in early human settlements. On the French coast, near Menton, olive stones have been found in settlements dating back to the Palaeolithic period, approximately 35,000-8,000 years before Christ, while findings prove the presence of the olive tree in Spain go as far back as the Neolithic period 8000-2700 B.C. Evidence of the olive tree in Puglia, Southern Italy, dates back to the Neolithic period as well, while on lake Garda, findings testify that the olive was being eaten in the Bronze Age: 1500-1000 B.C.
The most evidence of widespread olive growing comes from the Levant region – modern day Syria and surrounding areas. On Crete, simple stone mortars have been discovered, some of which date back to the fifth millenium B.C. These were used to crush olives manually and the paste was put in a crude mat made with olive tree branches, onto which a heavy stone was placed to apply enough pressure to press the oil from paste. The ancient civilization of Crete owes all its wealth to the olive oil trade: in the palace of Knossos enormous olive oil warehouses and huge clay amphoras have been discovered.
The spread of olives and olive oil was driven mainly by Phoenician sailors who carried olive cuttings and oil along their trade routes resulting in the establishment of groves in coastal regions of Cyprus, Crete and Egypt and further afield.
Egyptian documentation and iconography on the spreading of the olive tree is plentiful and the importance of olives and olive oil is clear from the fact that in ancient times lighting totally depended on the olive oil burnt in the lamps.
The testimonies of the importance of olive growing in Greece are also numerous. Here the olive was considered a sacred tree dedicated to the goddess Athena. It was believed that the olive tree was created during a competition between Athena and Poseidon for the lands of Attica. The gods said that whoever created the most wondrous object would be the winner. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and out gushed water but, as it was sea water, proved useless to the citizens. Athena struck the earth with her spear and out sprung an olive tree which provided vital resources such as food, wood, shade and olive oil which proved to be crucial for lighting, cooking and medicine.
As such, Athena was declared the winner which is why Athens is named after her and not Poseidon.
Solon, the Greek Philosopher and Lawmaker, in the 6th Century B.C. levying the death penalty on anyone caught cutting down Olive Trees as they believed them to be more important than human life. Indeed, it was considered so sacred that, in Greece, only the pure and chaste were allowed to tend the olive trees (It’s where we get the term Virgin in Virgin and Extra Virgin Olive Oil from).
In case one thinks that the olive is limited to the Mediterranean, it is known that early hunter-gatherers in southern Africa interacted with wild olive trees primarily through its wood rather than its fruit. While its Mediterranean cousin was famously domesticated for oil, the wild African subspecies served as a vital, everyday survival resource during the Middle Stone Age 77,000 – 38,000 years ago.
Archaeological excavations at sites like Sibudu Cave and Border Cave in Kwazulu- Natal reveal that hunter-gatherers used the tree for cooking fires due to the woods very dense, long burning and low smoke fires as well as toolmaking, weaponry and medicine where wild olive leaves were infused into teas to treat eye infections, kidney issues and fevers amongst other things.
CONCLUSION
The Olive Tree is plant of immense cultural and historic significance with a history that stretches back to the very earliest humans on the planet. Revered and treasured wherever it is grown.
Giles Henschel
Founder