A brief history of olive oil: from Asia to ancient Rome
The olive was native to Asia Minor and spread from Iran, Syria and Palestine to the rest of the Mediterranean basin about 6,000 years ago.
Olive is among the oldest known cultivated trees in the world - being grown before the written language was invented. It was being grown on Crete by 3,000 BC. and olive oil production and trading requirements were also set out in the famous Babylonian Hammurabi Code. The Phoenicians spread the olive to the Mediterranean shores of Africa and Southern Europe. Olives have been found in Egyptian tombs from 2,000 years BC. and olive branches adorned the tombs of the pharaohs to accompany them in the afterlife as symbol of eternal life and fertility.
THE LEGEND OF ATHENA AND POSEIDON
Legend has it that Zeus offered a contest between Athena and Poseidon for the possession of Athens. Poseidon raised up his three-pronged trident, smashed it upon the hard rock of the Acropolis and out a salt spring sprang. Athena on the other hand produced an olive tree, its rich fruits bountifully dangling from the branches.
The Athenians chose Athena’s gift and the olive tree has remained a central part of Greek life ever since for all of its profound qualities. The leaves have been used to crown the heads of victorious athletes, generals and kings, the wood used to construct useful tools, the oil used to give fuel to lamps, rubbed into the bodies of athletes and warriors, added to all food dishes and to the olives themselves. It became a staple in the Mediterranean diet and a valuable export throughout antiquity and today.
THE ROMANS AND THE OLIVE OIL
The olive culture was spread to the early Greeks then Romans. As the Romans extended their domain they brought the olive with them, introducing its cultivation in every occupied territory and promoting its dissemination in Spain, North Africa and in the whole Mediterranean area. Olive oil thus became one of the hubs of the Roman economy, as demonstrated by the existence of the "arca olearia" a sort of olive oil commodity exchange.
THE ROMAN TECNIQUE FOR THE EXTRACTION OF THE OLIVE OIL
The roman cultivation and extraction techniques remained nearly unchanged until the first years of twentieth century. In the ancient Rome the crushing of the olives was performed by means of the trapetum, a large mortar carved in stone inside which one or two vertical millstones spun around a vertical axis, or by means of a mola olearia.
This machinery consisted of a fixed circular base with the arm of a wheel millstone fixed to a central axis. The vertical distance between the millstone and the base could be regulated so that olive stones would not be smashed.
The olive paste obtained by means of trapeta or molae oleariae was spread on vegetal fiber disks (fiscula) which were stacked up and pressed with the torcular. These presses were operated by lever, winch or screws.
The pressing surface was made of stone or of little clay bricks. On its border there was a channel carrying the oil mixed with water into a container. The oil-water mixture was then poured into another wide mouth earthenware jar where the separation was gradually obtained due to the floating of the oil above the water.
THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE OLIVE OIL IN THE ANCIENT ROME
The value and the use of the olive oil varied according to its quality.
Romans clearly recognized five different categories of olive oil: the Oleum ex albis ulivis was the highest quality one; it was obtained from unripe olives; the Oleum viride, extracted from olives that were partially green and partially ripe, was equally highly valued ; the Oleum maturum, from totally ripe olives, was lower in quality than the precedent. Going down the scale, next was the Oleum caducum, a low worth oil, produced using the olives which, due to an advanced degree of ripeness had fallen on the ground. A the bottom of the scale there was the Oleum cibarium, a very bad quality product obtained from wormy olives: this oil was given to the slaves or was used for non alimentary purposes.
A SYMBOL OF PEACE
With the fall of the Roman Empire and the barbarian invasions, olive cultivation and olive oil trade in the Italian peninsula seemed to be destined to a fatal decline, but a fresh impetus was given by the hard-working and tenacious monks of various religious orders: it was then that the ideal centre of gravity of the olive oil tradition was carried from the Roman to the Christian Civilization.