You know how sometimes you run across something so profound, it just blows your mind? Well, that’s what recently happened to me not with a new shiny gadget or groundbreaking recipe, but with something a lot older and more prevalent than you might assume: the lowly olive. I used to think I knew olives. I’ve eaten them in dozens of dishes, seen their oil promoted for health benefits, and admired the gnarled attractiveness of olive trees in photographs.
But seriously though, I never did properly get the olive. Beyond its green or black shape and how awesome it tastes, there’s all this huge, deep history that was completely foreign to me. This tiny fruit holds within it this entire universe history, culture, symbolism which totally changed my mindset, taking me from a pantry staple to a living witness of human civilization.
Join me as I follow the miraculous fruit’s history from its botanical roots to its deep cultural significance. We will observe how olives have shaped whole civilisations, influenced religious life, and spread themselves across the entire world. Let us remember the olive again: not just a snack, but a story yet to be told.
1. The Olive: A Subtropical Evergreen Marvel
My first real surprise was to learn what an olive actually is. Botanically, it’s Olea europaea, or the “European olive,” a subtropical evergreen tree native to Mediterranean Europe, Asia, and Africa. Short and stumpy usually, they’re 8–15 metres tall except for the Pisciottana variety in southern Italy, which is much taller with wider trunks.
Its fabled silvery-green leaves are 4–10 cm long, and the tree bears tiny, delicate white flowers. These are found on previous year’s wood in clusters from the leaf axils. The olive is a drupe, similar to cherries or peaches. That puts its “pit” (American) or “stone” (British) in improved botanical context.
2. The “Liquid Gold”: Olive Oil’s Lasting Power
I soon realized olive oil’s significance extends far beyond the realm of food. Even the word “oil” itself used to be a synonym for olive oil a testament to how much it was ingrained. Pressed from crushed olives, the oil was used innumerable ways: lighting lamps, grooming hair, cosmetics, soap production, medicine, and lubrication. It was vital.
Additionally, olive oil production helped create some of the first agricultural tools. Archaeological records show its use over 6,500 years ago in coastal Israel today. Commercial agriculture thrived in Crete as early as 3000 BC, perhaps galvanizing the Minoan civilization. Interestingly, initial cultivation was not for food olives in their natural state are rather bitter. Instead, they were largely cultivated to produce oil to fuel life.
3. Beyond the Oil: The Many Faces of Table Olives
The majority of harvested olives go straight into oil (about 80%), and the remaining 20% are “table olives” to be eaten fresh. This sector of the business surprised me with its diversity. There are more than a thousand varieties of olives, and each affects the shape of the fruit, fruit size, color, and even the tree’s growth.
Some trees are grown for oil only, others for munching, and the majority for several uses. Some trees are only ornamental like the sterile Olea europaea Montra, also known as the dwarf or miniature olive. Breeders currently concentrate on hybrids with improved disease resistance, faster growth, and higher yield. This is the culmination of how ancient cultivation has simply become more sophisticated.
4. A Tree of Ages: Longevity and Resilience
What. Seriously amazed me was how long. Some olive trees have been alive for thousands of years, the definition. Of endurance, of continuity. No wonder they’re revered across cultures and over generations.
Evidence from fossils shows that the olive tree clan was around 20–40 million years ago in the Oligocene period. Its utilization by humans probably dates back 100,000 years, but particularly along the coast of Morocco on the Atlantic. The extended history shows how profoundly deep-rooted the olive has been in human existence and growth.
5. From Asia Minor to the Mediterranean: Domestication Begins
The past of the olive’s evolution from wild bush to cultivated staple is phenomenal. Wild olives are indigenous to Asia Minor but are found along western Asia and Africa. Modern cultivated olives, however, came primarily from the Levant, Aegean, and the Strait of Gibraltar. It’s one of the first fruit trees to be cultivated.
Cultivation likely began in the Eastern Mediterranean around 6,000–8,000 years ago. Pieces of ancient tombs have olive wood, pits, and graffiti, all supported by DNA research. These studies confirm today’s olives came from wild oleasters collected by human hands as early as 19,000 BP. Their journey was destined to shape civilisations.
6. The Phoenician Trail: Diffused Olives Across Empires
The Phoenicians helped spread the olive extensively. Starting in the 16th century BC, the Levantine merchants disseminated olives around the Mediterranean. They cultivated the tree in Crete and subsequently to the mainland of Greece during the 14th to 12th centuries BC.
Greeks embraced olives quickly, with leaders like Solon encouraging cultivation. Olive symbolism flourished in their mythology and medicine. In Egypt, olive cultivation dates back to Ramses III’s reign, used in lamps, embalming, and cosmetics. Even Tutankhamun was buried with a garland of olive branches proof of the fruit’s spiritual and economic value.
7. Rome’s Golden Tree: Cultural and Economic Staple
This formed the basis of the Roman Empire. Myth credited Hercules and Minerva with the transplant of the olive tree and farming techniques to Italy. There are Roman records in Lazio dating back to the 7th century BC, which confirm early olive cultivation, and the Etruscans may have preceded them in doing so.
Pliny the Elder named 22 types of olives and documented optimum farming methods. Roman life revolved around the olive, from Forum plantations to imperial laws promoting cultivation. Trade in olive oil was so vigorous that Rome had designated areas for trade, regulated by experts like stockbrokers. After the fall of Rome, olive farming declined until it was revived through Muslim Arabs, whose influence shaped Iberian olive culture and languages.
8. A New World Chapter: Olives Reach the Americas
Olives were brought to the Americas by Spanish colonists in the 16th century, beginning when Antonio de Rivera planted seedlings in Lima, Peru, in 1560. The weather was ideal, and olive cultivation quickly found its way up and down the Pacific coast of South America.
Spanish missionaries also brought about the introduction of olives to California between 1769 and 1795. California was a hub of commercial oil production by the mid-1800s. Currently, the U.S. cultivates olives in warm places such as California, Texas, and Florida, with 95% of domestic production coming from California.
9. From Japan to Pakistan: A Global Green Expansion
Japan initially began cultivating olives on Shodo Island in 1908, and currently, the island produces over 95% of Japan’s olives. The island is also referred to as “Olive Island,” and olives are a culturally and economically important crop there. Cultivation has since extended to nearby regions.
Pakistan has also embraced olive farming. Since 2010, it embarked on large-scale planting as its national tree movement. With support from Spain and Italy, millions of trees have been planted on 10 million acres of land identified. By 2025, Pakistan had over 5.6 million cultivated trees, a reflection of peace and economic promise. Even northern countries like the UK, Germany, and Canada now consider small-scale olive growth.
10. Sacred Symbolism: Greek and Egyptian Veneration
Olives in Greece were not just food but holy food. As part of the “Mediterranean triad” (grain and wine), they were the basis for advanced civilizations. Olive oil became a commodity to be exported and a present for Egyptian pharaohs.
Greeks employed oil for grooming, healing, and rituals. Olympic winners were crowned with the olive branch, and Athena presented the first olive tree to Athens. Homer referred to olive oil as “liquid gold,” and Hippocrates called it “the great healer.” Egyptian mythology attributes Isis as the one who taught the art of oil extraction, and olive oil was taken by royalty to the afterlife.
From its ancient roots in Asia Minor to its modern-day role as a religious, cultural, and economic icon, the olive is a fruit above all fruits. It’s a power that has endured through the ages, sculpted civilizations, inspired faith, and connected humans with the earth. The next time you look at an olive, I hope you’ll notice what I now notice: a living story, a miracle of a plant, and a powerful symbol of all that brings human beings to life.
