Origin & expansion of olive tree cultivation  

Its origin dates back to very ancient times. It is said to have first appeared and been cultivated in prehistoric times but it is impossible to determine precisely the course of its gradual and irregular expansion over the time.

DE CANDOLLE claims the plant to be native to Syria whereas PELLETIER claims it to have originated in Asia Minor and to later have been transplanted to Europe by the Phocaeans when they settled in France. Others have it that it was introduced by the Phoenicians as early as pre-homeric times; others, still, claim it originated in the 18th century BC, during the period of NUMA POMPILIUS, while PLINY believes it to have only appeared in Italy during the period of Lucius Tarquimus Priscus.

Indeed, Rome would offer peasants administrative and military guarantees and, in exchange, Africans would give Rome economic ones.

Oil production in Roman-occupied Africa was plentiful. Even when they feared vineyards’expansion, the emperors were in favor of expanding olive-groves to Dalmatia, Spain, and mostly to Africa.

The Tripolitaine, Tunisia, the valleys of Kabylie, the valley of the Chelif river, and the steppe regions in the Sahara were turned into cultivated lands.

But was quantity synonymous with quality ?

Did the African oil described by Juvenal deserve such judgement in his Satires ? « He bastes his fish with plenty Venafre oil, but the wilted cabbage that is brought to you smells like the lamp because the oil that is poured in your cruets is the one that Micipsa’s children send out for us aboard their sharp-bow vessels, the one that has Romans flee the baths when BOCCHAR washes himself, the one, still, that prevents snake bites. »

This description, which is as much harsh as racy, shows that in the days of the Antonines, when Juvenal was writing, African oil had a bad reputation. But it is precisely the period that precedes the great development of the olive tree cultivation.
The olive-grove’s prosperity lasted until the Arabs’ invasions. It is even said that the people from Byzacena showed one of them an olive pit as a symbol of their richness.

It was not until the 16th century that migrants from the Iberian Peninsula introduced the olive tree into Latin America where olive-groves have expanded at a modest rate, eventhough a few countries such as Argentina, the USA, Mexico and Brazil have seen a more rapid expansion in the past 20 years.

More recently, olive cultivation has moderately been developing in South Africa, Australia and Japan.
In truth as shown in this presentation, olive tree cultivation has been confined to the Mediterranean basin for centuries: we can definitely talk of the « civilisation » of the olive tree .
The olive tree has rarely come under criticism. Rather, it has always been praised by countless great minds such as PLATO, ARISTOTLE, SOPHOCLES, HOMER, AESCHYLUS or VIRGIL, OVID, PLINY THE ELDER, HORATIO, MARTIAL and later DU BELLAY.
Madame de SEVIGNE once wrote : « I could never sympathise with you for not having any butter in Provence since you have such wonderful oil».

MISTRAL praised Provence’s silvery orchards.
Thousands of trees were planted on the banks of the Mediterranean sea through the ages. Some have always come back to life for the olive tree will only die when it is killed.