Olive oil
Based on Wikipedia: Olive oil
Eight thousand years ago, before the wheel, before writing, before bronze tools transformed warfare, people in the Mediterranean were already crushing olives for their oil. This golden liquid has been so central to human civilization that the olive branch became our universal symbol of peace, and wars were fought over groves of gnarled trees that could live for centuries.
The story of olive oil is really the story of the Mediterranean world itself.
The Oldest Cultivated Tree
Wild olives originated somewhere in the region we now call the Middle East—ancient Persia, Mesopotamia, or perhaps the Levant. The exact birthplace remains disputed among scholars, with some arguing for Egypt as the original source. What we know for certain is that Neolithic people were collecting wild olives by the eighth millennium before the common era, making the olive one of the first plants humans ever deliberately cultivated.
By 6000 BCE, people in Galilee were pressing olives into oil. A thousand years later, a coastal settlement south of what is now Haifa was producing olive oil—a settlement now submerged beneath the Mediterranean. The earliest surviving clay vessels designed specifically for storing olive oil date to around 3500 BCE, during what archaeologists call the Early Minoan period on Crete. But production almost certainly began even earlier, perhaps before 4000 BCE.
The olive tree traveled westward with the Phoenicians, those legendary seafarers and traders who spread their alphabet and their commerce across the ancient world. By the 28th century BCE, olive cultivation had reached Greece, Carthage on the North African coast, and Libya. The Phoenicians carried olive farming to Spain, and eventually Roman colonists planted groves throughout every province touching the Mediterranean.
When Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Americas in the 16th century, they brought olive trees with them. Today, Chile, Argentina, and California all produce olive oil, their climates echoing the hot, dry summers and mild winters of the Mediterranean homeland.
Liquid Gold of the Ancient World
The ancient city-state of Ebla, located near modern Aleppo in Syria, maintained extensive archives on clay tablets. When the palace burned around 2400 BCE, the fire accidentally preserved these records, baking them into permanence. Among the documents: detailed descriptions of royal olive groves and oil production. Olive oil was already, four and a half thousand years ago, a commodity worth documenting in royal archives.
The Egyptians imported olive oil from Crete, Syria, and Canaan before 2000 BCE. In a tomb on the Greek island of Naxos, archaeologists discovered jugs containing olive oil residue that had sat undisturbed for over four thousand years. The Egyptian exile Sinuhe, writing around 1960 BCE about his time in northern Canaan, specifically noted the region's abundant olive trees.
For the Minoans of Crete, olive oil represented wealth itself. They used it in religious ceremonies and traded it throughout the Aegean. The Mycenaean Greeks who followed them, flourishing from roughly 1450 to 1150 BCE, made olive oil a major export. Their production method was straightforward: place olives on woven mats and squeeze. Collect the oil in vats. This technique persisted for millennia.
During the Iron Age, towns in the Judaean lowlands became specialized centers for olive oil production and trade. Archaeological sites at Ekron, Timnah, and Gezer have revealed the infrastructure of an early oil industry. The Samaria ostraca—pottery fragments used for record-keeping in the capital of the Kingdom of Israel—mention "washed oil," which scholars believe refers to virgin olive oil, the highest quality grade.
Rome's Excellent Oil at Reasonable Prices
When Rome conquered Egypt, Greece, and Asia Minor, trade along the Mediterranean intensified dramatically. The Romans planted olive trees everywhere they went, transforming the Mediterranean basin into one vast olive grove.
The historian Pliny the Elder, writing in the first century of the common era, noted with satisfaction that Italy now produced "excellent olive oil at reasonable prices"—the best in the Mediterranean, he claimed. Roman engineers developed increasingly sophisticated extraction technology: the trapetum, a crushing device, and various forms of the olive press. Some of these ancient presses still exist in the Eastern Mediterranean. Remarkably, a few dating to the Roman period remain in use today, their stone basins worn smooth by twenty centuries of olives.
In Italy, olive oil may have been produced as early as the Bronze Age, but production intensified throughout the first millennium BCE and into the Roman period. Southern Italy has yielded some of the earliest evidence of rotary olive mills. As the Roman Empire expanded, so did its appetite for oil—and its technology for producing it. Eventually, screw presses appeared from Spain to the eastern Mediterranean, squeezing ever more oil from each harvest.
The hydraulic press, developed by Joseph Graham in 1795, represented the next great leap in productivity. But the basic principle—crushing olives into paste, then separating oil from the vegetable matter and water—remained unchanged from Bronze Age techniques.
Athletes, Cosmetics, and Birth Control
The Greeks had uses for olive oil that went far beyond the kitchen.
Starting in the early seventh century BCE, Greek athletes began rubbing themselves with oil before exercising in the gymnasia. The practice spread quickly to every Hellenic city-state. Athletes trained naked and oiled, and this custom persisted for nearly a thousand years despite the considerable expense. The Spartans were particularly devoted to the practice.
Olive oil served as an early cosmetic and skincare product. But perhaps most surprisingly, the philosopher Aristotle recommended it as a form of birth control. In his "History of Animals," he advised applying a mixture of olive oil combined with cedar oil, lead ointment, or frankincense ointment to the cervix to prevent pregnancy. Whether this worked is another matter entirely, but it demonstrates how central olive oil was to daily Greek life—present even in the most intimate moments.
Sacred Oil
The olive tree itself has long symbolized peace between nations. In Greek mythology, the goddess Athena won patronage of Athens by offering an olive tree, a gift deemed more precious than the salt spring offered by her rival, Poseidon.
In Jewish tradition, olive oil held unique sacred significance. It was the only fuel permitted in the seven-branched menorah used during the Exodus and later in the Temple in Jerusalem. This oil had to be obtained from the first drop of a squeezed olive—the purest extraction. Priests consecrated it and stored it in special containers reserved for Temple use. Today, while candles are acceptable for lighting the Hanukkah menorah, many prefer oil containers to echo the original Temple practice.
The ancient Israelites also used olive oil to prepare holy anointing oil for priests, kings, and prophets. The very word "messiah" comes from the Hebrew word for "anointed one."
Christian churches have maintained oil's sacred role. The Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican traditions use olive oil in multiple sacraments. The oil of catechumens blesses and strengthens those preparing for baptism. The oil of the sick confers the sacrament of anointing of the sick, also called extreme unction. Bishops consecrate olive oil mixed with perfuming agents like balsam to create sacred chrism, used in confirmation, baptism, ordination, and the consecration of churches and altars. Traditionally, monarchs were anointed with such oil at their coronations.
Eastern Orthodox Christians still light oil lamps in their churches, at home prayer corners, and in cemeteries. These vigil lamps are elegantly simple: a votive glass filled with olive oil floats on a half-inch of water, with a cork supporting a lit wick. To extinguish the flame, you gently press the float down into the oil. Offering olive oil to churches and cemeteries remains a common act of devotion.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses virgin olive oil blessed by priesthood holders for anointing the sick, continuing a tradition that reaches back millennia.
From Tree to Table
The journey from olive to oil requires careful timing and technique. Pick the olives too green, and the oil tastes bitter. Wait until they're overripe, and fermentation defects spoil the flavor. Perfect ripeness matters.
Traditional production used large millstones to grind olives into paste. The paste would sit under the stones for thirty to forty minutes—shorter grinding produced less oil with a rawer taste; longer grinding increased oxidation and dulled the flavor. Workers spread this paste onto fiber disks, stacked them in columns, and pressed them to separate the liquid from the solids.
That liquid contained both oil and water. Traditionally, producers relied on gravity and patience: oil, being less dense than water, slowly rises to the surface. Modern centrifuges accomplish the same separation in seconds. The process has two stages: first, a centrifuge separates the liquid from the paste; then a second centrifuge separates the oil from the water.
Any oil produced purely by these mechanical means—crushing, pressing, and centrifugation—qualifies as virgin oil. Extra virgin olive oil meets additional strict chemical and taste standards: low free acidity, essentially no detectable defects in flavor or aroma.
Weather shapes quality dramatically. A drought during the flowering phase can lower the grade from extra virgin to merely virgin. Olive trees also naturally alternate between heavier and lighter harvest years, producing well only every couple of years. Even in bumper years, quality depends on conditions the grower cannot control.
The Cultivars and Their Characters
Not all olive oil tastes the same. Hundreds of olive cultivars exist, each with distinctive flavor, texture, and shelf life. Some varieties excel in salads or as bread dipping oil. Others suit cooking or frying. Industrial varieties end up in animal feed or engineering applications.
As olives ripen, they change color from green to violet to black. The stage at which they're harvested directly affects the oil's taste. Early-harvest green olives typically produce more peppery, robust oils. Later-harvest oils tend toward mellower, buttery profiles.
The oil's composition varies with cultivar, altitude, harvest timing, and extraction method. Chemically, olive oil consists mainly of oleic acid—up to 83 percent—with smaller amounts of linoleic acid (up to 21 percent) and palmitic acid (up to 20 percent). Extra virgin olive oil must have no more than 0.8 percent free acidity.
The Smoke Point Question
A persistent misconception holds that olive oil cannot be used for high-heat cooking. This is wrong.
Extra virgin olive oil has a smoke point around 180 to 215 degrees Celsius (356 to 419 degrees Fahrenheit), with higher-quality oils smoking at higher temperatures. Refined light olive oil can handle temperatures up to 230 degrees Celsius (446 degrees Fahrenheit)—comparable to many other vegetable oils used for deep frying.
When extra virgin olive oil exceeds roughly 210 to 216 degrees Celsius, the unrefined particles within it burn, and the flavor deteriorates. For deep frying specifically, refined olive oils often work better: higher smoke point, milder flavor. But the claim that no olive oil can withstand high heat simply doesn't hold up to the facts.
Beyond the Kitchen
Olive oil's uses extend well beyond food. It makes an effective natural lubricant for kitchen machinery—blenders, grinders, cookware. It can fuel oil lamps, just as it did in ancient temples and homes. It serves as a base for soaps and detergents, and some cosmetics use it as their primary ingredient.
In an unexpected modern application, scientists have used olive oil as both a solvent and a ligand in synthesizing cadmium selenide quantum dots—nanoscale semiconductor particles with applications in electronics and medical imaging. The ancient oil has found a place in cutting-edge nanotechnology.
There's even an international literary prize, the Ranieri Filo della Torre, awarded annually for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction about extra virgin olive oil. The olive, it seems, inspires art as well as industry.
The Modern Industry
Today, olive oil production remains concentrated in the Mediterranean. Spain dominates, producing roughly a quarter of the world's supply in 2022. Italy, Greece, and Turkey together account for another 59 percent of global production. The groves planted by Phoenician traders and Roman colonists continue to bear fruit.
The olive tree, with its silver-green leaves and gnarled trunk, lives extraordinarily long. Some trees in the Mediterranean are over a thousand years old, still producing fruit. They've outlasted empires, watched civilizations rise and fall, and continued yielding their golden oil through it all.
In Mediterranean cuisine, olive oil remains one of three foundational foods, alongside wheat (in the forms of bread, pasta, and couscous) and grapes (as fruit and wine). This trinity—grain, grape, and olive—has sustained Mediterranean peoples since before recorded history. When you drizzle olive oil over bread or into a salad, you're participating in a tradition that stretches back eight thousand years, to those Neolithic gatherers who first noticed that crushing olives released something precious.
The oil they pressed was the same substance Aristotle discussed, that Roman merchants traded, that priests consecrated, that athletes rubbed on their skin. It fueled lamps that lit temples and homes through dark centuries. It anointed kings and blessed the dying. It crossed the Atlantic in Spanish ships and took root in California soil.
Olive oil has witnessed nearly the entire span of human civilization. And in every century, in countless kitchens and temples and workshops, people have found new uses for this ancient liquid gold.