History of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

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The Olive Tree and the Vine in the History of the Mediterranean

“The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive tree and the vine.”

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    The history of the olive tree (Olea Europea Sativa) is as old as the Mediterranean civilisation: almost 6,000 years ago, farming communities occupying the littoral regions of the Eastern Mediterranean, on today's Syrian-Palestinian coast, began to select varieties and realised that it was possible to obtain a thick, unctuous liquid from it, which was useful for cosmetics, had an aromatic and pleasant taste, and could easily be used as fuel. 


    In the ancient world, olive growing was spread throughout Greece, present-day Turkey and Palestine. In Babylonia, in 2,500 B.C., the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi regulated the production and trade of olive oil. 


    Around 2,300 BC, Egyptians decorated the tombs of pharaohs with olive branches, a symbol of life and fertility, but oil was traded in Egypt before the 19th dynasty.

Olive Oil in Ancient Cultures

Throughout Palestine, populations were dedicated to olive cultivation, particularly the Philistine tribe. In Israel, stone mortars dating back to the 5th millennium BC have been discovered. Even today, the eight centuries-old olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem remain, having been regenerated from the stumps under which Jesus stopped to pray.


In Jewish culture, olive oil is used to sanctify and consecrate the Ark of the Covenant, religious furnishings, and priests. In fact, the Bible makes a clear reference to the dove released by Noah, which returned to the ark with an olive branch in its beak, symbolising the end of universal suffering and the beginning of a new life.


The increasing demand for oil and wine in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Anatolia contributed to the development and prosperity of Mediterranean coastal areas. Thanks to the Phoenicians, the olive tree spread to most Mediterranean countries.

  • Antique oil barrels

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  • Portrayal of ancient olive oil production

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Olive Oil in Italy

The beginnings of olive cultivation in Italy are attributed to the Greeks, who colonised and exported the olive tree to the southern regions and North Africa. However, it was the Romans who significantly expanded olive cultivation in ancient times, shaping the fundamental choices of their food supply policies.


During the Roman era, important improvements were introduced in olive oil production technology. Numerous Latin agronomic texts, written from the 2nd century BC onwards by various authors, provided landowners with guidance on the best cultivation techniques to adopt and the most suitable pruning practices.


The historian Pliny stated that, in the first half of the 1st century AD, "Italy possessed such an abundance of excellent, low-cost oil that it surpassed all other countries." Meanwhile, Junius Moderatus Columella, in his work De Rustica, declared that "Olea prima omnium arborum est"—meaning that, among all trees, the olive tree holds the foremost place.

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