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Pottery Find Proves Olive Oil Used in Israel 8,000 Years Ago

New evidence suggests olive oil was used in Israel and possibly the Mediterranean basin as early as 8,000 years ago.

By Isabel Putinja
Dec. 29, 2014 10:32 UTC
563
Summary Summary

New research has shown that olive oil was uti­lized in Israel and the Mediterranean area as far back as 8,000 years ago, as indi­cated by tests on pot­tery at En Zippori in Lower Galilee. The study by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Antiquities Authority found traces of olive oil in pot­tery shards dat­ing back to 5,800 BCE, sug­gest­ing early large-scale pro­duc­tion and con­sump­tion of olive oil in the region.

New research has uncov­ered evi­dence that olive oil was used in Israel and pos­si­bly the Mediterranean basin as early as 8,000 years ago.

A study pub­lished in the Israel Journal of Plant Sciences on November 24 revealed the results of tests car­ried out on pot­tery uncov­ered dur­ing exca­va­tions between 2011 and 2013 at En Zippori in Lower Galilee.

A team of researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Antiquities Authority used sam­ples of the shards of pot­tery to con­duct an organic residue analy­sis and found them to con­tain traces of olive oil. The tests also indi­cated that some of the pot­tery ves­sels found here date back to 5,800 BCE and were used for the stor­age of olive oil.

These find­ings, along with those uncov­ered at the sub­merged site of Kfar Samir off the coast of Israel where crushed olive stones and olive pulp were found buried in pits, pro­vide the ear­li­est evi­dence of the large-scale pro­duc­tion and con­sump­tion of olive oil in Israel and pos­si­bly the entire Mediterranean region.

While the Kfar Samir study esti­mated that olive oil was pro­duced in the region 6,500 years ago, the fact that the pot­tery found at En Zippori dates back to 5,800 BCE, means that olive oil pro­duc­tion and con­sump­tion could go back as much as 8,000 years.

This indi­cates that olive oil was a diet sta­ple in the region at the time, but researchers also spec­u­late that it may have also been used as fuel in oil lamps.

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