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Olives First Domesticated 7,000 Years Ago in Israel, Study Says
Haaretz ^ | March 11, 2020 | Ariel David

Posted on 07/01/2020 10:23:34 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

Villagers in what is today Israel were the first to cultivate olive trees, an international study that pooled data from countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea has concluded. This start of olive domestication apparently began in the Galilee around 7,000 to 6,500 years ago, the team estimates.

Olives and especially olive oil were staples of ancient economies around the Mediterranean Basin: The oil was used for cooking, lighting as well as medicinal and ritual purposes. But so far there has been little agreement among researchers as to where and when people first domesticated the plant. Dating estimates have ranged from more than 6,000 to 4,000 years ago, and multiple areas of the Eastern or Central Mediterranean have been suggested as the location of the first domestication of this important crop.

The uncertainty is largely because the archaeological and genetic evidence on the olive tend to contradict each other, says Dr. Dafna Langgut, an archaeobotanist at Tel Aviv University who led the new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Holocene.

To try to resolve the conundrum, Langgut and colleagues came up with the idea of analyzing fossilized pollen samples from across the Mediterranean to look for significant increases in olive pollen in the flora of each region. Crucially, the researchers looked for spikes in olive pollen that were not accompanied by an increased presence of plants with similar habitat requirements, such as oaks and pistachios, that would have benefited from improved environmental conditions.

This allowed them to identify increases that could only be explained by sustained large-scale human cultivation of the olive. They also correlated the data from the pollen with archaeological finds from each region to map the spread of olive cultivation across the Mediterranean.

(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: agriculture; animalhusbandry; archaeobotany; dafnalanggut; dietandcuisine; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; huntergatherers; olives
An extremely old olive tree in the Galilee [Yaron Kaminski]

An extremely old olive tree in the Galilee [Yaron Kaminski]

1 posted on 07/01/2020 10:23:34 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

2 posted on 07/01/2020 10:25:31 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Some hungry person 7,000 years ago pulled an olive out of a brine pool and a light went on.


3 posted on 07/01/2020 10:38:14 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: SunkenCiv

Gen 8:11  And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. 

or olive cultivation just started over.


4 posted on 07/01/2020 10:47:02 PM PDT by the_daug
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To: SunkenCiv
And the world has been sneezing ever since!

Those freaking pollen machines are a blessing and a curse.

5 posted on 07/01/2020 11:06:59 PM PDT by GBA (Here in the matrix, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.)
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To: the_daug

How did Noah even recognize a leaf that had been submerged for 40 days and 40 nights, or 150 days, as being from an olive tree?


6 posted on 07/01/2020 11:15:32 PM PDT by CurlyDave
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To: CurlyDave; GBA; SpaceBar; the_daug

Oh wow, look what I found:

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/blackolivesmatter/index


7 posted on 07/01/2020 11:24:39 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv

If you visit the Garden of Gethsemane they will tell you that the Olive trees there are the same ones that were standing when Jesus was there. I got some leaves off of the trees but modern scientists believe that none of the trees are really old enough to have been there. That assertion is in dispute since they say some of the trees could be sprouts from even older roots. Either way it’s still a nice place to go to if you happen to be in the area.


8 posted on 07/01/2020 11:39:13 PM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: SunkenCiv

Adam: “Hey babe, check these little fruits out!”

Eve: “Yeah, they’re okay but what’s got you hyped?”

Adam: “If we added them to that potato juice that went weird along with vermouth in those cool glasses the serpent gave us...”


9 posted on 07/02/2020 1:11:59 AM PDT by MikelTackNailer (If they can show up to protest they can show up to vote.)
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To: SunkenCiv

That can’t be! Ain’t duh woild ‘spose tuh be ohny 6000 yeahs olt?

D’ats whut muh preecher done tol’ me!


10 posted on 07/02/2020 3:01:41 AM PDT by Terry L Smith
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To: SunkenCiv

Olive Oyl was a wild thing until Popeye came along...


11 posted on 07/02/2020 3:47:46 AM PDT by Adder ("Can you be more stupid?" is a question, not a challenge.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Seeing all that you have to do to an olive to be able to eat it, it’s a real wonder. Just like beer, also ‘discovered’ about this time. It takes a process to make beer. Wine, I can see how it was discovered, simply letting grape juice ferment, but the making of beer takes some serious research................Aliens...............


12 posted on 07/02/2020 5:27:12 AM PDT by Red Badger (To a liberal, 9-11 was 'illegal fireworks activity'..........................)
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To: CurlyDave

It had a piece of pimento stuck to it...................


13 posted on 07/02/2020 5:28:58 AM PDT by Red Badger (To a liberal, 9-11 was 'illegal fireworks activity'..........................)
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To: MikelTackNailer

Adam: “Hey babe, check these little fruits out!”

Eve: “Really, Adam, is sex the ONLY THING on your mind all the time?”.............


14 posted on 07/02/2020 5:30:30 AM PDT by Red Badger (To a liberal, 9-11 was 'illegal fireworks activity'..........................)
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To: SunkenCiv

Well, they needed something to put in their martinis, right?


15 posted on 07/02/2020 5:30:42 AM PDT by moovova
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To: Red Badger
Probably from Nibiru, I still don't trust those bastards.

16 posted on 07/02/2020 9:06:39 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv

They can’t be all that bad.
They gave us beer and olives....................


17 posted on 07/02/2020 9:10:39 AM PDT by Red Badger (To a liberal, 9-11 was 'illegal fireworks activity'..........................)
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To: Red Badger

And they had the idea to stuff olives with pimentos.

18 posted on 07/02/2020 2:43:28 PM PDT by MikelTackNailer (If they can show up to protest they can show up to vote.)
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To: CurlyDave

“.....leaf that had been submerged for 40 days and 40 nights, or 150 days, as being from an olive tree?”

Does olive wood float?


19 posted on 07/02/2020 3:21:16 PM PDT by the_daug
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