La cultura dell’olio d’oliva nel Mediterraneo orientale tra il II e il I millennio a.C.

Abstract

The cultivation of the olive tree and the production of olive oil are at the center of the cultural background and of the technological and productive development of the Mediterranean civilizations since the 4th millennium BC, when the first cultivation and pressing systems were developed in southern Levant. Analyzing various case studies, it is possible to identify some fundamental stages in the development of an actual culture of olive oil which, during the 2nd millennium BC, spreads from the Levant to the Aegean and Egypt, with the acquisition of agricultural skills and reworking of technological models