يُعزى أصل إنتاج زيت الزيتون إلى منطقة سوريا-كنعان، والتي تشمل حاليًا سوريا ولبنان وفلسطين. بدأ استخراج زيت الزيتون البري في هذه المنطقة... سرعان ما انتشر في منطقة البحر الأبيض المتوسط، وأصبح جزءًا لا يتجزأ من ثلاثية: الخبز والنبيذ والزيت. من كتاب (The Greatest History)
النص باللغة الانكليزية :
The origin of olive oil production has to be found on the shores of the Mediterranean east, throughout the Syrian-Canaanite region, currently Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and. Wild olive oil began to be extracted in this area. In Egypt, where olive cultivation began around 2000 BC. C. Olive oil began to be used for cosmetic purposes, as the Egyptians pointed to Isis as the goddess who taught men the olive cultivation. The same Egyptians started marketing the olive oil. Inside the funeral chambers you can see represented vases and amphors with olive oil. Soon it would extend to the Mediterranean, being an integral part of the trilogy: bread, wine, oil.
Oil production did not come with the Greeks, but in the middle of the 2nd millennium a. C. via the Mycenical conquest of Crete (where oil production and its ritual use since the ancient Minoan period is documented). In the later Hellenic civilization that developed in the area, olive oil always played an important role. In the mythical origin of Athens, the olive plays a fundamental role, for tradition says that both Athenaea and Poseidon wanted to have under their protection the new city and for it Zeus offered a present to Athenians, preferring these the present of Athenaea, a sack of olive. During gymnastics competitions, the Greeks anointed themselves with olive oil mixed with ash (in a primitive soap form) which then cleaned themselves using a bronze or copper artillery called estrigilo. At the time of Greek colonial expansion, around 7th century BC. C. The Greeks took oil production to Italy.
The Phoenicians, the great merchant town of Mediterranean antiquity, brought olive cultivation to the southern shores of the Iberian Peninsula, present-day Andalucia, towards the 11th century. C. Soon this land should become one of the major liquid gold production areas. It was the Phoenicians who also introduced olive oil production in the Maghreb and Sardinia.
The translation says that the first to grow olives were the Chamians, which is the country of Cham, from which they moved this cultivation to the Iberian island and all of Europe, Spain and Greece,
The text is quoted from a famous Spanish page, and the page quoted this information from a Spanish book called (The Greatest History).