Trade and production[edit]

Ancient oil press (Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology, Bodrum, Turkey)

Archaeological evidence shows that by 6000 BC olives were being turned into olive oil. [12] and 4500 BC at a now-
submerged prehistoric settlement south of Haifa.[13]
Olive trees and oil production in the Eastern Mediterranean can be traced to archives of the ancient city-
state Ebla (2600–2240 BC), which were located on the outskirts of the Syrian city Aleppo. Here some dozen
documents dated 2400 BC describe lands of the king and the queen. These belonged to a library of clay tablets
perfectly preserved by having been baked in the fire that destroyed the palace. A later source is the frequent
mentions of oil in the Tanakh.[14]
Dynastic Egyptians before 2000 BC imported olive oil from Crete, Syria and Canaan and oil was an important
item of commerce and wealth. Remains of olive oil have been found in jugs over 4,000 years old in a tomb on the
island of Naxos in the Aegean Sea. Sinuhe, the Egyptian exile who lived in northern Canaan about 1960 BC,
wrote of abundant olive trees.[15] The Minoans used olive oil in religious ceremonies. The oil became a principal
product of the Minoan civilization, where it is thought to have represented wealth. [citation needed]
Olive oil was also a major export of Mycenaean Greece (c. 1450–1150 BC).[16][9] Scholars believe the oil was made
by a process where olives were placed in woven mats and squeezed. The oil collected in vats. This process was
known from the Bronze Age and has been used by the Egyptians and continued to be used through
the Hellenistic period.[9]

Culinary us
Olive oil is an important cooking oil in countries surrounding the Mediterranean, and it forms one of the three
staple food plants of Mediterranean cuisine, the other two being wheat (as in pasta, bread, and couscous) and
the grape, used as a dessert fruit and for wine.[19]