The Journey of Olive in History
In history, there are no clear scientific data on when and where the olive tree was first domesticated. However, many sources indicate that the olive tree was likely domesticated around 4000 BCE, probably in Anatolia. With the cultivation of wild olive trees, known as “oleasters,” in the Mediterranean region for thousands of years, the importance of olives began to expand and increase in human history.
It is possible to trace the footsteps of olives throughout history. In the 3rd millennium BCE, olive oil workshops and oil jars were found in Crete. Similarly, reliefs related to olives were discovered on wall decorations in Egypt during the same period. In the 17th century BCE, the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun wore a crown made of olive branches. From the 2nd to the 16th centuries BCE, amphorae carrying olive oil were observed on the eastern coast of the Aegean Sea.
The Code of Hammurabi, one of the oldest written laws in history, includes regulations regarding olive oil. It is stated that anyone who prunes an olive tree for more than two hands’ breadth within a year will be subject to the death penalty.
During the Trojan War in the 13th century BCE, it is noted that olive oil was used for greasing both humans and animals. In the 6th century BCE, laws related to olive cultivation were introduced by Solon. Solon, known as the strongman of Athens, prohibited cutting down more than two trees per year in each olive grove and banned the export of all agricultural products except olive oil.
In the year 30 CE, Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem with olive branches.
By the 14th century CE, olive oil had become widespread in Mediterranean countries and had become a staple food in these regions.
In 1550, Leonardo Da Vinci designed an olive oil press.
In the 1880s, Van Gogh painted a total of 16 pictures related to olive groves. In a letter he wrote, he expressed: “Olive trees are very characteristic, and I try to capture these features. They are silvery, sometimes bluish, sometimes tending to green, sometimes with a bright white falling on yellow, pink, purple, orange, iron red. But it’s difficult, really difficult. But I love it, and the idea of working with gold and silver attracts me. Maybe someday, like the yellows in the sunflowers, I’ll also depict these as personal impressions.
Aldous Huxley says the following about the olive tree: “If I had enough time and artistic ability, I would dedicate several years of my life solely to painting olive trees. What richness on just one subject.”
And regarding Nazım Hikmet’s poem “On Living”:
“..So, you will take living so seriously,
even at seventy, for instance, you’ll plant olive trees,
not because they may remain for children,
but because, though you fear death, you don’t believe in it,
and living weighs heavily on you.”