The history of olives is said to date back 8,000 years to carbon remains found in Spain
	There are over 750 million trees worldwide with a steady yearly increase
	Olive trees are 50 feet wide on average
	Hippocrates boasted of the therapeutic and healing medicinal properties of olives
	Olives are rich in tannin (the same component that makes red wine stain your carpet)
	While the 90 percent majority of olives harvested are used for oil, the remaining 10 percent are used to create over 850,000 tons of table olives
	The Olive was a native to Asia Minor and spread from Iran, Syria and Palestine to the rest of the Mediterranean basin 5,000 years ago. It is among the oldest known cultivated trees in the world - being grown before the written language was invented. It was being grown on Crete by 3,000 BC and may have been the source of the wealth of the Minoan kingdom. The Phoenicians spread the olive to the Mediterranean shores of Africa and Southern Europe. The olive culture was spread to the early Greeks and Romans. As the Romans extended their domain they brought the olive with them

Mythology
Athens is named for the Goddess Athena who brought the olive to the Greeks as a gift. Zeus had promised to give Attica to the god or goddess who made the most useful invention. Athena's gift of the olive, useful for light, heat, food, medicine and perfume was picked as a more peaceful invention than Poseidon's horse - touted as a rapid and powerful instrument of war. Athena planted the original olive tree on a rocky hill that we know today as the Acropolis. The olive tree that grows there today is said to have come from the roots of the original tree. 

Olive trees are among the oldest known cultivated trees in the world. The botanical progenitor of the olive tree is not accurately known, but it is thought to be the Oleaster Olea Sylvestris, which is still grown wild in North Africa, Portugal, Southern France, Italy and by the Black and Caspian Seas.

Genetic and archaeological studies indicate that the original center of olive cultivation was Israel, Lebanon, Cyprus and Crete.

The Jewish people knew about the olive tree thousands of years ago. In the Hebrew culture, the olive tree symbolized peace and happiness. 

According to another theory, the olive tree is a descendant of Olea chrysophylla, which grew in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and neighboring areas. These two species probably originated from another tree that covered much of the Sahara Desert prior to the Glacier age!

Others believe that the olive tree originated from Africa (Ethiopia and Egypt). This is where olive trees were first cultivated systematically and from where they spread to Cyprus, Morocco, Algiers, Tunisia and elsewhere by the Phoenicians. The historians Theophrastos reported that the olive tree grew in southern Italy, Syria, Egypt and elsewhere. The olive tree was cultivated in Egypt thousands of years ago. It was around 2000 B.C. that the olive orchards disappeared, either because they were destroyed for some unknown reason or because the interest of the people turned to other crops. Perhaps at that time, olive trees were brought to the southern coast of Crete.

Olive tree cultivation was spread to Greece or North Africa to Italy and to other Mediterranean countries around 600 B.C.. The Greeks, the Romans and the Arabs all probably introduced the olive tree to Spain. That is indicated by the use in Spain of both Greco-roman and Arabic words associated with olives. The olive fruit, for instance, is called"aceituna" and the olive oil "aceite" which are Arabic words, while the tree is called "olive" which is Latin from the Greek "elea".

The Romans considered those who used animal fats instead of olive oil in their diet as barbarians. Rome extended olive cultivation to the entire empire under its occupation.

The olive culture played an enormous role in the early civilizations of Egypt and Greece. Athens was named in honor of the goddess Athena who brought the olive tree to the city. Plato's Olive Tree on Holly Street in Athens still exists. Solon had passed special laws for the olive tree. It is believed that the god for farming and animal husbandry, Aristeos, invented the cultivation of the olive tree and the olive oil mill.

The olive tree is of great historic importance. It played an important role in areas such as diet; religion; and the decoration of pottery, of walls and of gold pieces of art. It also constituted the symbol for peace, wisdom and victory. The wreaths for the winners of the Olympic games were made of a wild olive branch (Kotinos).

Hippocrates knew the therapeutic properties of the olive oil, the father of medicine. The consumption of a spoonful of oil was common practice for many people and still is for some, despite the advancement of pharmacology.

Pictures found in the palace of Knossos in Crete indicate that people consumed olives and used olive oil for cooking and for fuel in lamps. Archeologists believe that the wealth of the Minoic Kingdom was related to the successful trade of Cretan olive oil. Huge clay containers, used for the storage of olive oil, can be found even today in ancient Knossos, Phestos and in other places. 

More Amazing Olive Facts & Lore
Crete and Syria were the first countries to cultivate Olea europaea (the olive tree) over 5,000 years ago
The word olive evolved from the Greek elaiwa to elia to maslina to olajbogyo to oliva and finally, olive
Culinary uses of olive oil include cooking oil, bread dips and salad dressing
Other uses of olive oil include lotions, soaps, body oil, medicinal purposes, hair and skin tonic, salve, anointment oil and lamp oil
Olive branches have come to symbolize peace, longevity, fertility, maturity, wealth and prosperity
The olive tree has inspired artists, who tried to capture the emerald and silver hues of the leaves shimmering against an azure Mediterranean sky or the gnarled and twisted branches that withstand the ages, as many olive trees date back hundreds of years
The Impressionists – Renoir, Matisse, Cézanne and Van Gogh – were especially enamored of the olive tree and its bounty

Much has been written over the years about the olive – references to the tree and its fruit can be found in works by Shakespeare, Milton, Byron and Bates.