Discovery of 8,000-Year-Old Olive Oil in Israel

The discovery of the remains of a 7,700-year-old village during archaeological excavations in northern Israel has proven that early humans were aware of the multiple properties of olive oil, including its culinary uses, from that time. Archaeologists from the University of Haifa and their student teams, led by Dr. Ehud Galili, published the results of long-term excavations conducted along the shores near this port on Tuesday, December 25. This excavation in the Galilee region is significant due to the discovery of one of the earliest wooden structures made by humans and possibly the first use of olive oil by humans, as well as the discovery of the oldest pottery jars containing olive oil. According to Israeli archaeologists, this village from the 'Neolithic' period may have been the world's first workshop for extracting olive oil, as the oldest wooden structure ever discovered was found there. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Thursday, December 27, that researchers compared the remnants of olive oil from this ancient village with olive oil compounds from modern times and found striking similarities between them. Dr. Yanir Milevski and Nimrod Gatosof, archaeologists from the Israeli Antiquities Authority, wrote in an article for the Israel Journal of Plant Science that such ancient consumption of olive oil had not been discovered throughout the Mediterranean region from the Middle East to Europe until now. It was previously believed that the people of the 'Crete' region in Greece were the first cultivators of domesticated olives after wild olives. It had always been said that the people of the 'Minoan' civilization (pre-Greek civilization) in the Bronze Age in Greece were the first humans to use olives. Historical records also state that the Canaanites were the first recipients of olive oil 4,500 years before Christ. Before this recent discovery, the oldest remaining olive oil dated back to around 3,000 BC. Dr. Deborah Nimdaar from the Earth Sciences Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem stated that two pottery jars containing remnants of olive oil are approximately from 5,800 years before Christ. According to Haaretz, researchers have stated that the consumption of olives as part of human nutrition during that period is certain, and they may have even used it for lighting. Researchers say there is evidence that people of that time mixed olive oil from olives grown with great difficulty in their living environment with edible seeds and consumed it. Signs of edible seeds from that period had also previously been found in the 'Tsipori' area in northern Israel, near where recent excavations took place. Olive oil has long been of significant importance to the people of the Mediterranean coast for their livelihood and trade, and landowners of olive groves were considered the wealthy of their time. In ancient Jewish texts ('Mikra' or 'Old Testament' books), it is mentioned that itzhar (pure oil, probably referring to olive oil), dagan (edible grains like barley and wheat), and tirosh (wine) were three foods of early humans. Jews and Palestinians living in this land have also placed great importance on olive oil production in recent centuries, and olive groves and oil extraction workshops have been among the oldest professions for the people of this land. Jews and Palestinians have regarded the olive tree as a symbol of peace; the olive tree leaf has also been a symbol of Jews in this ancient land for thousands of years. Recent excavations near the village of 'Tsipori' in the Galilee region on the outskirts of Haifa have also uncovered evidence of human life from about a thousand years ago, including houses and 10x10 stone tablets, as well as the remains of a place of worship.