Food, cooking medium, lamp fuel, preservative, medicine, cure, laxative, aphrodisiac, cosmetic, unguent, magic potion ingredient and religious unction - since time immemorial, olives have been used for all these purposes, especially amongst Mediterranean cultures: The Bible, the Torah and the Koran are all full of references to the olive. It is thought that cultivation of the native wild tree began somewhere in the Near East some 6000 years ago. Olive cultivation and oil extraction was brought to Iberia by the Phoenicians around 1050 BCE, and again by the Greeks between 600-700 BCE, but it was undoubtedly the Romans who would turn Iberian oil into a veritable industry, though it seems that the Iberian tribes looked on this new and pungent oil with some suspicion, preferring their good old lard. The importance of Iberian oil to the Empire was huge. Spanish oil amphorae have been found in all Roman provinces, though most was of course was destined to Rome itself. Mount Testaccio in the city is a testament to the size of the trade. This artificial hill is made up of 40 million amphorae discarded during the first 250 years of the Common Era, most of which are from the Iberian Peninsula. Hadrian even had a coin struck bearing the picture of an olive branch and the inscription Hispania. While the fall of the Roman Empire led to the decline of olive production in the rest of Europe, Southern Spain was to see an increase in cultivation with the arrival of the Arabs, who brought with them new varieties and production techniques. ( ref : rural tourism in Spain )
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 03:15:52 +0000
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