Abstract
This seminar reviewed current research into the botany of the olive tree and its long-term development as a tree that was first exploited, then domesticated and cultivated. Investigative methods include carpology and anthropology, with recent refinements such as quantitative eco-anatomy and geometric morphometry. This method involves taking a large number of measurements on olive pits found in archaeological sediments, in order to characterize varieties by comparison with present-day specimens. This makes it possible to identify cultivars used at different periods and thus to link them to families that are now well characterized by their yields and organoleptic qualities. Working also on wood, the team from the University of Montpellier has been able to prove the existence of olive tree pruning in Neolithic times, and thus a form of cultivation and even irrigation, notably in the Middle Ages. All in all, the natural history of the olive tree, as reconstructed from samples taken from archaeological sediments, contributes to a history of the spread of olive growing that is older and more complex than traditional theories : it wasn't the Phoenicians and Greeks who brought this crop to the West, at least not everywhere. The olive tree had already been cultivated since Neolithic times on the Iberian peninsula and in Africa, and since at least the Bronze Age on the Italian peninsula. But Eastern settlers certainly passed on new varieties and cultivation improvements, and must have developed these crops in the northern Mediterranean.
