Monumental Olivetrees
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15.01.15 Map with the Monumental olive trees of Crete (Europa Nostra)
Civilization and Olive Oil
- Created on Tuesday, 05 July 2016 03:17
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The olive is a favourite subject in Minoan art. Olive trees, olive branches and olive blooms are depicted in many wall paintings and relief works, found at the palace of Knossos (1600-1400 BC) and displayed in the Heraclion Museum today.
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| Wall-painting with olive foliage |
Storage-jar (pithos) from Psira island |
Of the most well known, is the wall painting depicting an olive tree between wild goats, the relief with the bull and the olive tree at the balcony of the northern entrance of Knossos palace, the wall-painting with "The dance in the Sacred Grove" and other scenes with olive foliage, blooming branch, branches and relief olives.
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Olive branches and leaves are often depicted on the vases of the Minoan period. Characteristic examples are to be found in the storage-jar discovered at the small island Psira off the coastline of north-eastern Crete which is decorated with bull's heads and olive shoots on either side (1600-1500 B.C) as in the cup with the olive branch in bloom from Knossos (1600-1500 B.C), both now displayed in the Heraklion Museum. |
| Rushing bull and olive-tree |
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The olive was a favourite subject even in the craft of gold-plating in the Minoan period. Characteristic of this is the superb piece of jewellery made up of a bunch of golden olive leaves found in the pre-palatial cemetery on the small island just outside today's settlement of Mochlos to the north of the village of Lastros in Sitia. |
| Olive - trees on the fresco "Dance at the Sacred grove"Knossos |
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At the Olympic games that started in 776 B.C, ancient Greeks were crowning the winners with a wreath ("kotinos") made of branches cutted always off the same wild olive-tree, known as "kallistefanos" (which means "for beautiful wreaths"). |
| Wild goats and olive-tree |
Also at the Panathenea games (600 B.C), the winner's prize was a decorated amphora, full of olive-oil which was produced of the "Mories" (Sacred) olive-trees belonging to Godess Athena.
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| Wall-painting with olive-tree branch |
Olive branch in bloom |
History of Olive Oil in Crete
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The olive was believed to have first made its appearance in the third millenium BC in the Middle East and consequently spread throughout the Aegean Islands, Greece and other Mediterranean regions.
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Fossils of olive leaves, dating 50-60 thousand years |
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However, new fossil findings of olive tree leaves (Olea Europea) dating back 50 to 60 thousand years were discovered by Professor E. Velitzelos along strata of the volcanic crater in Santorini (Thera). Later, on the island of Nisyros, more such findings proved its indigenous existence in the greater region of the Aegean thousands of years ago. The first inhabitants of Crete, is considered that, besides other crops, they occasionally collected and ate the fruit of the wild olive tree (Olea oleaster), from as far back as the Neolithic Period (6000-3000 BC). Later on, during the 3rd millennium B.C, the inhabitants of Crete start the cultivation of the olive-tree and during the 2nd millennium proceed to its systematic exploitation.
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| Storage - jars, at Knossos palace |
On Minoan Crete, after 2000 BC, the olive assumes prominence in the royal economy of Knossos and is later passed on to the economy and life of Mycenaean Greece.
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There was a great number of uses for olive oil in Minoan Crete. It was used either fragranced or not for cosmetic purposes, for religious ceremonies, as a body ointment, as a therapeutic substance, as a lubricant and as fuel for lamps.
Ideogramms depicting the olive tree, its crop and olive oil found in Linear A and B tablets, consist the evidence for Minoan's occupation with the olive tree and its produce, from 1800 BC.
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Many archaeological finds bear testimony to the dominant position of the olive in Minoan Crete.
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| Olive-Fruits from Kato Zakros |
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Wall-paintings, tools, installations and inscriptions serve as proof of the importance placed by the Minoans on the production, storage and merchandising of olive oil as far back as 1700 BC. A bowl of olives (1450 BC) found in a well in the palace of Zakros, Eastern Crete, shows that Cretans of the Minoan Period included olives in their diet.
In the following centuries, between 700 - 400 B.C, the olive and the olive-oil acquired a special importance all over Greece. Philosophers Anaxagoras and Empedocles investigate the history of olive, Aristoteles describes its cultivation, Solon legislates its protection and Platon teaches in its shade. |
| Oil-lamp from Sitia | |
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| Oil-lamp from the Malia palace |
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Godess Athena who, according to the Cretan Mythology was born on the shores of river Triton in Crete, won the contest against God Poseidon about naming the city of Athens, as the famous Greek myth says, by offering to the humanity an olive-tree, symbol of peace, wisdom and prosperity. |
| Ideogramms depicting olive-trees and olive oil in Linear B script. |
Other Products of Olive Oil
- Created on Tuesday, 05 July 2016 03:02
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In addition to oil the olive tree also provides us with many other products.
Olives themselves, which are prepared in different ways depending on the variety, are used as an addition to lunches, salads and in many dishes and are an excellent, tasty and healthy food.
On Crete there are many well known traditional ways to prepare olives which are used at home for household purposes or in small industries for sale on the market. The best known ways are:
Green olives in brine or split olives which are prepared using the fruit of the Tsounati or Mouratolia varieties.
Black olives as a paste or in brine which are prepared from the thick fleshed varieties Throumbolia, Hondrolia or Tsounati or small fruited varieties and the most widespread variety on Crete, Lianolia or Coroneiki.
Olive tree wood has been used since antiquity as a fuel substance, for wooden piles in architecture, for column connectors, for agricultural and other tools and for constructing idols of gods and other wooden statues.
Today olive wood is the raw material for making furniture and wooden sculptures. On Crete there are quite a few excellent artisans who produce real masterpieces from olive wood. This hard, durable and at the same time excellent looking wood with its numerous natural formations is an exceptional raw material from making tables, chairs, beds and many other decorative items.
Olive leaves and branches have been used as mattresses since ancient times and are today used as animal feed and fuel.
The leaves of the olive tree which are removed from the fruit at the olive presses are used as a raw material for producing compost suitable for fertilizing olive plantations intended for the production of organic olive oil.
