According to Greek mythology, the olive tree was born from the rivalry between Athena, goddess of wisdom, and Poseidon, god of the seas.
According to this legend, the winner of the contest was Athena, who plunged her spear into a rock, and from it sprang the first olive tree, under whose branches all the other Greek gods would be born. Tradition says that even today there is an olive tree in the place where these events supposedly took place.
Beyond mythology, the origin of the olive tree is lost in the mists of time, and it is impossible to state with certainty when and where it first appeared. While the wild olive, or oleaster, was already a very common tree in the Near East and the Mediterranean environment from very remote times, the beginning of its cultivation is commonly placed in the Middle and Near East. Its spread occurred with the expansion of Mediterranean civilizations that colonized much of the known world, leaving a mark on Western culture that survives to this day.
According to recent research, it can be affirmed that the existence of the olive tree dates back at least 12,000 years B.C., with fossils of its leaves having been found in Pliocene deposits in Italy, in the Upper Paleolithic in North Africa, and in the Bronze Age in Spain.
Different hypotheses also place its origin in Egypt or Ethiopia, and even in some areas of Europe, while others consider the primordial wild olive to have originated in Asia Minor, spreading from Syria to Greece and from the southern Caucasus to Iran and the Mediterranean coasts, where its cultivation would grow considerably to the present day.
Spread of olive oil in the Mediterranean world
Although there is no consensus among researchers about its origin, there is general agreement that it was the Phoenicians who spread its cultivation in Greece between the 16th and 12th centuries B.C. The first decrees regulating its plantations are known around the 4th century B.C. The earliest written documents about the olive tree are some Mycenaean clay tablets from the reign of King Minos, 2,500 years B.C.
Later, the olive tree reached Tripoli, Tunisia, Sicily, and the Italian peninsula, following its path from south to north. When the Romans arrived in Africa, they were surprised that the locals had already developed its cultivation, continuing its expansion in the conquered territories such as France, including Corsica and Sardinia.
Since the expansion of the Roman Empire, the olive tree has been linked to the Mediterranean Sea and has been cultivated continuously to the present day. All the peoples who have occupied this sea have applied their culture and irrigation systems to olive cultivation, as well as various techniques for olive oil extraction, with countless historical references from the most remote antiquity.
It is known that the Egyptians imported extra virgin olive oil in large format from Syria and Palestine through Canaan. In fact, the olive tree appears in a large number of hieroglyphs. In Greece, the first Olympic torch was made with olive branches, as were the crowns awarded to the winners of various competitions, as it symbolized peace and truce in battles. The Greeks also used olive oil to anoint their kings and priests.
References to the olive tree in Christianity are equally numerous. In the Bible, there are up to four hundred mentions of the olive tree and oil. In Genesis, a dove brought an olive branch to Noah, marking the end of the Great Flood. With extra virgin olive oil, ointments for anointing were made, and temples were illuminated with it, not forgetting the passage of Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives.
Olive cultivation in Spain
The olive tree was introduced in Spain during the Phoenician and Greek domination of Mare Nostrum, reaching significant areas after the Third Punic War, when olive trees occupied a large stretch of Andalusian valleys and spread through the central and Mediterranean coasts of both Spain and Portugal.
The great flourishing of olive cultivation came with the expansion of these two cultures. Whether it was the Phoenicians or Greeks who introduced its cultivation to the Iberian Peninsula, both Romans and Arabs encountered plantations cultivated by the Iberian peoples.
During the Roman era, the trade of olive oil from Hispania spread throughout the Western world, as evidenced by the numerous remains of amphorae bearing the mark of Baetica, used for its transport along the great European rivers such as the Rhône, Garonne, Rhine, and Danube.
After the Arab invasion, the new settlers introduced their own olive varieties throughout southern Spain, expanding the cultivated area and contributing to our language the words “aceituna” (olive) and “aceite” (oil). Throughout Al-Andalus, Hispano-Muslim olive cultivation reached a greater flourish in the Iberian Peninsula than in other traditionally olive-growing areas of the Mediterranean.
Later, after the discovery of the New World, the Spanish brought the olive tree to America, and it soon spread to areas of Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and California.
The expansion of olive groves today
In Spain, since the rise of extra virgin olive oil and the significant improvement in its quality, making it a gourmet product, the cultivated area of olive groves has continued to grow. Specifically, in 2017, the planted area increased by 3%, with 79,000 new hectares, of which 35,000 corresponded to the conversion of traditional olive groves to the new intensive and super-intensive models.
Currently, the olive tree continues to expand to countries such as South Africa, Australia, Japan, and China. In total, 58 countries now produce olive oil, covering an area that grows by 165,000 hectares per year and already spans 11.5 million hectares.
