Olive oil history

Olive oil

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Olive oil
A bottle of olive oil
Fat composition
Saturated fats	Palmitic acid: 7.5–20.0% Stearic acid: 0.5–5.0% Arachidic acid: <0.6% Behenic acid: <0.3% Myristic acid: <0.05% Lignoceric acid: <0.2%
Unsaturated fats	yes
Monounsaturated fats	Oleic acid: 55.0–83.0% Palmitoleic acid: 0.3–3.5%
Polyunsaturated fats	Linoleic acid: 3.5–21.0 % α-Linolenic acid: <1.0%
Properties
Food energy per 100 g	3,700 kJ (880 kcal)
Melting point	−6 °C (21.2 °F)
Boiling point	300 °C (572 °F)
Smoke point	190 °C (374 °F) (virgin) 210 °C (410 °F)(refined)
Specific gravity at 20 °C	0.9150–0.9180 (@ 15.5 °C)
Viscosity at 20 °C	84 cP
Refractive index	1.4677–1.4705 (virgin and refined) 1.4680–1.4707 (pomace)
Iodine value	75–94 (virgin and refined) 75–92 (pomace)
Acid value	maximum: 6.6 (refined and pomace) 0.6 (extra-virgin)
Saponification value	184–196 (virgin and refined) 182–193 (pomace)
Peroxide value	20 (virgin) 10 (refined and pomace)

Olive oil is a fat obtained from the olive (the fruit of Olea europaea; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. The oil is produced by grinding whole olives and extracting the oil by mechanical or chemical means. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps. Olive oil is used throughout the world, but especially in the Mediterranean countries and, in particular, in Greece where the largest consumption per person can be found.

History

Early cultivation

The olive tree is native to the Mediterranean basin; wild olives were collected by Neolithic peoples as early as the 8th millennium BC.^[1] The wild olive tree originated in Asia Minor^[2] in ancient Greece.

It is not clear when and where olive trees were first domesticated: in Asia Minor in the 6th millennium; along the Levantine coast stretching from the Sinai Peninsula to modern Turkey in the 4th millennium;^[1] or somewhere in the Mesopotamian Fertile Crescent in the 3rd millennium.

Ancient Greek olive oil production workshop inKlazomenai, Ionia (modern Turkey)

A widespread view exists that the first cultivation took place on the island ofCrete. Archeological evidence suggest that olives were being grown in Crete as long ago as 2,500 BC. The earliest surviving olive oil amphorae date to 3500 BC (Early Minoan times), though the production of olive is assumed to have started before 4000 BC. An alternative view retains that olives were turned into oil by 4500 BC by Canaanites in present-day Israel.^[3] Until 1500 BC, eastern coastal areas of the Mediterranean were most heavily cultivated. Olive trees were certainly cultivated by the Late Minoan period (1500 BC) in Crete, and perhaps as early as the Early Minoan.^[4] The cultivation of olive trees in Crete became particularly intense in the post-palatial period and played an important role in the island's economy.

Recent genetic studies suggest that species used by modern cultivators descend from multiple wild populations, but a detailed history of domestication is not yet understood.^[5]

Production and trade

Ancient oil press (Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology, Bodrum, Turkey)

Olive trees and oil production in the Eastern Mediterranean can be traced to archives of the ancient city-state Ebla (2600–2240 BC), which were located on the outskirts of the Syrian cityAleppo. Here some dozen documents dated 2400 BC describe lands of the king and the queen. These belonged to a library of clay tablets perfectly preserved by having been baked in the fire that destroyed the palace. A later source is the frequent mentions of oil in Tanakh.^{[citation needed]}

Dynastic Egyptians before 2000 BC imported olive oil from Crete, Syria and Canaan and oil was an important item of commerce and wealth. Remains of olive oil have been found in jugs over 4,000 years old in a tomb on the island of Naxos in the Aegean Sea. Sinuhe, the Egyptian exile who lived in northern Canaan about 1960 BC, wrote of abundant olive trees.^[6]

Besides food, olive oil has been used for religious rituals, medicines, as a fuel in oil lamps, soap-making, and skin care application. The Minoans used olive oil in religious ceremonies. The oil became a principal product of theMinoan civilization, where it is thought to have represented wealth. The Minoans put the pulp into settling tanksand, when the oil had risen to the top, drained the water from the bottom.^{[citation needed]} Olive tree growing reached Iberia and Etruscan cities well before the 8th century BC through trade with the Phoenicians and Carthage, then spread into Southern Gaul by the Celtic tribes during the 7th century BC.

The first recorded oil extraction is known from the Hebrew Bible and took place during the Exodus from Egypt, during the 13th century BC. During this time, the oil was derived through hand-squeezing the berries and stored in special containers under guard of the priests. A commercial mill for non-sacramental use of oil was in use in the tribal Confederation and later in 1000 BC, the fertile crescent, and area consisting of present day Palestine, Lebanon, and Israel. Over 100 olive presses have been found in Tel Miqne (Ekron), where the Biblical Philistines also produced oil. These presses are estimated to have had output of between 1,000 and 3,000 tons of olive oil per season.

Many ancient presses still exist in the Eastern Mediterranean region, and some dating to the Roman period are still in use today.^{[citation needed]}

Olive crusher (trapetum) in Pompeii (79 AD)

Olive oil was common in ancient Greek and Roman cuisine. According to Herodotus, Apollodorus, Plutarch,Pausanias, Ovid and other sources, the city of Athens obtained its name because Athenians considered olive oil essential, preferring the offering of the goddess Athena (an olive tree) over the offering of Poseidon (a spring of saltwater gushing out of a cliff). The Spartans and other Greeks used oil to rub themselves while exercising in thegymnasia. From its beginnings early in the 7th century BC, the cosmetic use of olive oil quickly spread to all of Hellenic city states, together with naked appearance of athletes, and lasted close to a thousand years despite its great expense.^[7][8] Olive trees were planted in the entire Mediterranean basin during evolution of the Roman republic and empire. According to the historian Pliny, Italy had "excellent olive oil at reasonable prices" by the 1st century AD, "the best in the Mediterranean", he maintained.

The Manufacture of Oil, 16th=century engraving by J. Amman

The importance and antiquity of olive oil can be seen in the fact that the English word oil derives from c. 1175, olive oil, from Anglo-Fr. and O.N.Fr. olie, from O.Fr. oile (12c., Mod.Fr. huile), from L. oleum "oil, olive oil" (cf. It. olio), from Gk.elaion "olive tree",^[9] which may have been borrowed through trade networks from the Semitic Phoenician use of el'yonmeaning "superior", probably in recognized comparison to other vegetable or animal fats available at the time. Robin Lane Fox suggests^[10] that the Latin borrowing of Greek elaion for oil (Latin oleum) is itself a marker for improved Greek varieties of oil-producing olive, already present in Italy as Latin was forming, brought by Euboean traders, whose presence in Latium is signaled by remains of their characteristic pottery, from the mid-8th century.