Author:
Galili E.,Langgut D.,Terral J. F.,Barazani O.,Dag A.,Kolska Horwitz L.,Ogloblin Ramirez I.,Rosen B.,Weinstein-Evron M.,Chaim S.,Kremer E.,Lev-Yadun S.,Boaretto E.,Ben-Barak-Zelas Z.,Fishman A.
Abstract
AbstractWe present here the earliest evidence for large-scale table olive production from the mid-7th millennium BP inundated site of Hishuley Carmel on the northern Mediterranean coast of Israel. Olive pit size and fragmentation patterns, pollen as well as the architecture of installations associated with pits from this site, were compared to finds from the nearby and slightly earlier submerged Kfar Samir site. Results indicate that at Kfar Samir olive oil was extracted, while at Hishuley Carmel the data showed that large quantities of table olives, the oldest reported to date, were prepared. This process was most probably facilitated by the site’s proximity to the Mediterranean Sea, which served as a source of both sea water and salt required for debittering/pickling/salting the fruit, as experimentally demonstrated in this study. Comparison of pit morphometry from modern cultivars, wild-growing trees and the archaeological sites, intimates that in pit morphology the ancient pits resemble wild olives, but we cannot totally exclude the possibility that they derive from early cultivated trees. Our findings demonstrate that in this region, olive oil production may have predated table olive preparation, with each development serving as a milestone in the early exploitation of the olive.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference74 articles.
1. Boardman, J. The olive in the Mediterranean: its culture and use. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 275, 187–196 (1976).
2. J. P. Brun et al., L’huile d’olive en Méditerranée: Histoire, Anthropologie, Économie de l’Antiquité à nos Jours No. 2, (Institut de Recherches Méditerranéennes, Université de Provence, 1985).
3. A. Leva ed., Olive Tree in the Mediterranean Area: A Mirror of the Tradition and the Biotechnological Innovation (Nova Science Publishers, 2018).
4. Besnard, G. et al. On the origins and domestication of the olive: a review and perspectives. Ann. Bot. 121, 385–403 (2018).
5. Zohary, D. & Spiegel-Roy, P. Beginnings of fruit growing in Old World. Science 187, 319–327 (1975).
Cited by
17 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献