Olive oil is a fat obtained from the olive (the fruit of Olea europaea; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. The oil is produced by pressing whole olives and is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps, and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps. Olive oil is used throughout the world and is often associated with Mediterranean countries. Adulteration of olive oil is widespread, with involvement by organised crime.

History

Early cultivation

The olive tree is native to the Mediterranean basin; wild olives were collected by Neolithic peoples as early as the 8th millennium BC. The wild olive tree originated in Asia Minor or in ancient Greece. It is not clear when and where olive trees were first domesticated: in Asia Minor, along the Levantine coast stretching from the Sinai Peninsula and Palestine to historic Armenia, or somewhere in the Mesopotamian Fertile Crescent.

Archeological evidence shows that olives were turned into olive oil by 6000 BC and 4500 BC in present-day Palestine. Until 1500 BC, eastern coastal areas of the Mediterranean were most heavily cultivated. Evidence also suggests that olives were being grown in Crete as long ago as 2,500 BC. The earliest surviving olive oil amphorae date to 3500 BC (Early Minoan times), though the production of olive oil is assumed to have started before 4000 BC. Olive trees were certainly cultivated by the Late Minoan period (1500 BC) in Crete, and perhaps as early as the Early Minoan. The cultivation of olive trees in Crete became particularly intense in the post-palatial period and played an important role in the island's economy, as it did across the Mediterranean.

The olive ⁱ/ˈɒlɪv/ or ⁱ/ˈɑːləv/, known by the botanical name Olea europaea, meaning "european olive", (syn. Olea sylvestris) is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, found in much of Africa, the Mediterranean Basin from Portugal to the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and southern Asia as far east as China, as well as the Canary Islands, Mauritius and Réunion. The species is cultivated in many places and considered naturalized in Spain, Algeria, France (including Corsica), Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Malta, Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, Crimea, Egypt, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Argentina, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Lebanon, Java, Norfolk Island, California and Bermuda.

The olive's fruit, also called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the Mediterranean region as the source of olive oil. The tree and its fruit give their name to the plant family, which also includes species such as lilacs, jasmine, Forsythia and the true ash trees (Fraxinus). The word derives from Latin ŏlīva ("olive fruit", "olive tree"; "olive oil" is ŏlĕum) which is cognate with the Greek ἐλαία (elaía, "olive fruit", "olive tree") and ἔλαιον (élaion, "olive oil"). The oldest attested forms of the latter two words in Greek are respectively the Mycenaean 𐀁𐀨𐀷, e-ra-wa, and 𐀁𐀨𐀺, e-ra-wo or 𐀁𐁉𐀺, e-rai-wo, written in the Linear B syllabic script. The word "oil" in multiple languages ultimately derives from the name of this tree and its fruit.

Saint Olivia of Palermo (Italian: S. Oliva dì Palermo, Sicilian: Uliva di Palermu), Palermo, 448 – Tunis, 10 June 463, is a Christian virgin-martyr who was venerated as a local patron saint of Palermo, Sicily in the Middle Ages, as well as in the Sicilian towns of Monte San Giuliano, Termini Imerese, Alcamo,Pettineo and Cefalù.

Her feast day is on June 10, and she is represented as a young woman with olive branches surrounding her, holding a cross in her right hand.

Hagiographic sources

Saint Olivia seems to have been sanctified by popular tradition alone as a pious local saint, since her name was not recorded historically in any mainstream Latin or Greek martyrology or Hagiology of the Church.

The oldest textual sources of her Life include a Gallo-siculo Breviary of the twelfth century, which records her memory and is still preserved in Palermo, as well as a document in vulgar Sicilian of the fourteenth century found in Termini Imerese, and a Life contained in a lectionary of the fifteenth century.

olive is a modern food magazine published by Immediate Media Co. It was launched in 2003 and is an upmarket, monthly British food magazine featuring recipes, restaurants and food-focused travel.

Tom Parker-Bowles and Rebecca Seal are the magazine's regular restaurant reviewers. Marina O'Loughlin writes a regular travel column and has covered destinations such as Cork, Queens and Naples.

The website was launched in January 2015. It features a regular column by Rhodri Marsden.

References

External links

Oil! is a novel by Upton Sinclair published in 1927 told as a third person narrative, with only the opening pages written in the second person. The book was written in the context of the Harding administration's Teapot Dome Scandal and takes place in Southern California. It is a social and political satire skewering the human foibles of all its characters.

The main character is James Arnold Ross Jr., nicknamed Bunny, son of an oil tycoon. Bunny's sympathetic feelings toward oilfield workers and socialists provoke arguments with his father throughout the story.

The novel served as a loose inspiration for the 2007 film There Will Be Blood.

Characters

Oil is a 2009 documentary film directed by Massimiliano Mazzotta. It explores the Italian energy provider Saras S.p.A., operating in the area of oil refining and the production of electricity, located in the island of Sardinia, near Cagliari and the impact of oil development on the land and lives of the local population.

Awards

External links

CKY is an American heavy metal band from West Chester, Pennsylvania. Formed in 1998 by vocalist and guitarist Deron Miller, guitarist Chad I Ginsburg and drummer Jess Margera, the group currently features Ginsburg, Margera and bassist Matt Deis, who have performed with frontman Daniel Davies since Miller's departure. Closely linked to the CKY Crew, which features Margera's brother Bam, the band found initial recognition through its musical contributions to the CKY video series and the TV series Jackass.

Originally known by the full name Camp Kill Yourself, and later credited briefly as simply Camp, the band released its debut album Volume 1 in 1999, largely made up of material recorded for the CKY films. The group later signed with The Island Def Jam Music Group and released Infiltrate•Destroy•Rebuild in 2002, which gave the band its first experience of US chart success. An Answer Can Be Found followed in 2005, with latest studio album Carver City released by Roadrunner Records in 2009.