ABSTRACT
Introduction As a commodity, olive oil has been and is still playing an important role in the world market of vegetable oils. Albeit a small share in world edible vegetable oils, less than 3.5 % (Ti, 1996), it has for centuries dominated the countries of the Mediterranean basin, which account for nearly 98% of the olive oil and table olives world production. e agronomic and climatic factors characteristic only to the Mediterranean Basin provided the necessary conditions for the development of such a significant olive oil and table olives sector. e existence of the wild olive tree is lost in prehistoric times. Excavations in the Aegean Sea have unearthed fossilized olive leaves, dating more than 60,000 years. However, written evidence of the cultivation and production of olive oil are attested in the 3rd millennium B.C. in Evla (North Syria). e ideograms representing the olive tree, the olive fruit and the olive oil, found in the Cretan Linear A and B date from 6th millennium B.C. and are acknowledged to be of a high standard of pictography. e Minoans, expert navigators and capable traders, spread the cultivation of the olive tree westwards across the Mediterranean. Over the ages it became a major type of cultivation and a significant source of agricultural income. Nutrition and cooking methods were shaped by this abundance of olive oil to what is nowadays known as the Mediterranean diet. Olive oil gave wealth and health to the Mediterranean people and penetrated every aspect of their life. In myths, religious ceremonies, traditions, olive oil was everpresent. High quality olive oil was used as nourishment and in the preparation of cosmetics and perfumes, where it was mixed with other ingredients. Inferior quality olive oil was equally valuable as it was used in lamps for lighting and to make soap. With the expansion and development of olive oil production a whole range of occupations emerged, associated with storing, mixing, trading and the development of new products.
