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Modern glass carafe of olive oil.

Italy's Oldest Olive Oil Discovered in Peculiar Pot

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Olive oil is a staple of Italian cuisine. It's been that way for thousands of years. And new chemical analysis conducted on ancient pottery proves the liquid gold has existed in Italy hundreds of years longer than what anthropologists have previously recorded.

A team of researchers lead by Davide Tanasi, PhD, assistant professor of history at the University of South Florida, carried out chemical analyses to identify the content of a large jar, found in the 90s by Giuseppe Voza during the excavations at the site of Castelluccio.

Conservators at the Archaeological Museum of Siracusa restored and reassembled 400 ceramic fragments, resulting in an egg-shaped 3 ½ foot (1 meter) storage container adorned with rope bands and three vertical handles on each side. At the same architectural site in Castelluccio in Sicily, researchers found two fragmented basins with an internal septum, indicating it was used to keep multiple substances together, but separate, along with a large terracotta cooking plate.

Jar containing olive oil residue from Castelluccio, Sicily. Credit: Polo Regionale di Siracusa per i siti e musei archeologici Museo Paolo Orsi

Jar containing olive oil residue from Castelluccio, Sicily. Credit: Polo Regionale di Siracusa per i siti e musei archeologici Museo Paolo Orsi

"The shape of this storage container and the nearby septum was like nothing else Voza found at the site in Castelluccio," said Dr. Tanasi. "It had the signature of Sicilian tableware dated to the end of the 3rd and beginning of the 2nd millennium BC (Early Bronze Age). We wanted to learn how it was used, so we conducted chemical analysis on organic residues found inside."

In the study published in Analytical Methods, Dr. Tanasi tested the three artifacts using techniques traditionally and successfully used on archaeological pottery: Gas Chromatography, Mass Spectrometry and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. His team found organic residue from all three samples contained oleic and linoleic acids, signatures of olive oil. They conclude the artifacts are from the Sicilian Early Bronze Age due to their location and peculiar shapes.

"The results obtained with the three samples from Castelluccio become the first chemical evidence of the oldest olive oil in Italian prehistory, pushing back the hands of the clock for the systematic olive oil production by at least 700 years," said Tanasi.

Olive oil is a staple foodstuff of the Mediterranean. (Public Domain)

Olive oil is a staple foodstuff of the Mediterranean. (Public Domain)

This means olive oil has been a commodity in Italy for 4,000 years and it is as popular as ever. The only known identification of chemical signatures of olive oil are from storage jars discovered in southern Italy in Cosenza and Lecce believed to be from the 12th and 11th century BC (Copper Age).

The oldest remnants of olive oil to be traced in the world come from a clay vessel found in Israel. They are 8000 years old, indicating olive oil production was happening way back then.

Top image: Modern glass carafe of olive oil. (Public Domain)

The article, "Italy's oldest olive oil discovered in peculiar pot" Was originally published on Science Daily.

Source: University of South Florida (USF Health). "Italy's oldest olive oil discovered in peculiar pot." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 30 May 2018. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180530113241.htm

References

Davide Tanasi, Enrico Greco, Radwan Ebna Noor, Stephanie Feola, Vasantha Kumar, Anita Crispino, Ioannis Gelis. 1H NMR, 1H-1H 2D TOCSY and GC-MS analyses for the identification of olive oil on Early Bronze Age pottery from Castelluccio (Noto, Italy). Analytical Methods, 2018; DOI: 10.1039/C8AY00420J

 

Comments

Israel ? Italy? Sicily? 8000-2000 years BC ? They simply did not exist back then... Initially olive oil was indeed made from wild olive trees' olives , was very scarse and used for medicinal purposes. Later on production was increased by grafting the wild olive trees-the same process still used today, but olive oil was used primarily for oil lamp burning fuel !!! The sciences of medicine and grafting were developed by the indigenous people of the Hemus peninsula also inhabiting both coasts of the Aegean sea and further down south, later known as the Greeks. Athina, the Godess of Wisdom, daughter of Zeus bestowed the olive tree to the Athenians anyway....

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