Olives have played an important part in Mediterranean food and society for thousands of years. Archaeological evidence has shown that olive oil was used in the Egyptian mummification process and cured olives have been found in pharaohs' tombs and in the remains of Roman Pompei. According to legend, Isis the wife of Osiris showed the Egyptian people how to grow and use olives.

It is believed that the cultivation of olives began at least 6,000 years ago in Syria and Palestine, from where their use spread to Egypt and Cyprus. Some of the great trading nations of history, including the Greeks, the Minoans and the Phoenicians, enjoyed a prosperous trade in olive oil and many ancient ships found at the bottom of the Mediterranean had been carrying amphoras used for the storage and transport of olive oil.

The city Athens itself was named after the goddess Athena who, legend tells us, brought the olive tree to the city. The Greeks were reputed to have received only one other gift from the gods apart from olives and that was wisdom. There were periods in Greek history, most famously under Solon in the sixth century BC, when it was a capital offence to cut down or kill an olive tree and vows of chastity were required from those involved in harvesting the fruit.

The Romans eagerly adopted the olive and spread its use throughout their empire. They were also responsible for establishing its wider cultivation in those regions of their empire suited to its growth and they are generally credited with the development of the screw press for extracting its oil more efficiently.

The enlargement of the Moorish territories also encouraged widespread use and cultivation of the olive and added diversity to both its usage and to the varieties under cultivation. Similarly, the spread of various European empires across the Atlantic to North, Central and South America carried with it the cultivation and usage of olive products. Today, olives are grown around the world in temperate, hot climates with including Australia, China, Japan and South Africa.

Many cultures have associated the olive tree and its products with the sacred. Perhaps the extraordinary longevity of the tree has something to do with this. Amongst these associations, we are perhaps most familiar with the story of the dove returning to Noah's ark bearing an olive leaf. We speak of offering "an olive branch" as a gesture of reconciliation and Olympic victors were crowned with olive wreaths. Legend also tells us that when Adam was buried he had three seeds in his mouth from the Garden of Eden: these were a cedar, a cypress and an olive.

Ever since the days of Hippocrates, olives and olive oil have been recognised as beneficial to health and the olive tree has provided us with a huge range of products from lighting and furniture to axle grease and aphrodisiacs.