In The Pursuit Of Liquid Gold…
Older than humankind, olive trees (OleaEuropaea) have been around formillions of years. Most recent evidence can be found in the Karain Cave, located in Antalya,Türkiye (southern Anatolia, the eastern site of Mediterranean region). Archaeological findings suggest that human life dates as far back as 500,000 years ago.
However, the domestication and cultivation happened much later. It is believed to have started around 6,000-8,000 years ago,again in the eastern Mediterranean(modern-day Türkiye, Syria, and Palestine). By the time of the first major civilizations, like the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Luwians, olives were a fundamental crop.
It was just a matter of time that humanity found a way to extract the oil of this divine fruit, they would call it the “Liquid Gold”…