In search of the first olive oil

One of the world’s earliest civilisations pressed olives into oil. Carol Drinkwater who owns an olive farm in France, sets off to Anatolia to trace the roots of the ancient drupe

When the Ottomans drove the Venetians out of Constantinople and settled the city and the greater part of the eastern Mediterranean for themselves, they continued to exploit what the canny Venetian merchants had started: the expansion of olive plantations within their colonies.

By the time of Turkey’s declaration of independence in 1923, Istanbul (Constantinople) had evolved into a prosperous emporium for olive oils, as well as a major storage and transit house for its exportation. The city counted numerous mills and olive-oil soap factories.

But Turkey’s long, proud history in olive oil reaches back further than the days of Venetian exploitation. In the centre of this beautiful country lie excavated sites where neolithic settlements, dated around 6000 BC, have been unearthed. What excited me about Catalhoyuk, one of the world’s earliest known human settlements, was that vestiges of plant husbandry – pressed fruits and oil – have been discovered there. Did that include olives?