THE ORIGINS
The origin of the olive tree dates back to the dawn of time, and its history is linked to the civilisations that developed on the Mediterranean sea.
THE PHOENICIANS
The olive tree is native to the territory that extends from the south of the Caucasus to the highlands of Iran, along the Mediterranean coasts of Syria and Palestine.
Then, the cultivation of olive trees spread to the islands of Cyprus and Crete up to Anatolia and Egypt. Finally, it arrived in the Greek peninsula, where it became popular from the 16th century BC onward thanks to the Phoenicians.
THE GREEK CIVILISATION
From the 6th century BC, olive trees propagated from Greece to the whole Mediterranean basin, reaching the coasts of today’s Africa, Italy, France and Spain.
MAGNA GRAECIA
With the colonisation of Magna Graecia, in the 7th century BC, the cultivation of olive trees spread to all the countries overlooking the Mediterranean.
