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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.

• Times of Israel


• The Jerusalem Post


• Israel Jour­nal of Plant Sci­ences