There First testimony of the exploitation of the olive tree in Italy dates back to About 3700 years ago And it was discovered in Sicily, in the middle of the bronze age. It is the oldest test of the genre in the western Mediterranean, second only to that of Malta, which dates back to 5000 years ago. This was revealed by a research published in the scientific journal Quaternary Science Reviewsthe result of the collaboration between University of Pisa, of Tuscia and Sapienza of Rome.
The study focused on the area of Large Pantanoa swampy area near Messina, which he returned An uninterrupted stratigraphic sequence of sediments dating back to 3700 years ago. Through deep carotages, the researchers were able to analyze the pollinical content and identify one Exceptional presence of olive pollen already during the Medium bronze age. These unusually high quantities indicate not only the spread of the tree, but also a possible human intervention in its managementalthough not yet a formalized cultivation.
From the Bronze Age to the Kingdom of Sicily
According to the authors of the study, already in the protohistoric era theWild olive tree was used systematically For multiple purposes: not only for the production of oilbut also for the wood used as fuel and construction materialand for the used leaves as animal forage. Even if it was not yet an organized agriculture, the The density of the presence of the olive in the landscape suggests an active and conscious form of management by local populations.
The study identifies Three large phases of olive expansion in Sicily:
- Bronze Age (about 1700 BC): systematic use of the wild olive tree.
- Roman era (from the second century AC to the third century AD): large -scale diffusion, with archaeological tests such as amphorae and presses, which indicate a real cultivation of the olive tree.
- Modern period (Kingdom of Sicily, XIII -XIX century): passage to anModern olive growingdocumented by historical sources, in which the management of the wild is abandoned in favor of advanced agronomic practices.
Interdisciplinarity as a key to reconstructing the agricultural landscape of the past
The project saw a significant contribution from the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Pisawho edited the recovery and dating of sedimentary carrotsthe validation of geochemical data and the interpretation of the results in a paleo -trained and climatic key, as the professor explains Monica Binico -author of the study together with his colleague Giovanni Zanchetta:
Our analysis has united approaches of natural sciences and human sciences. This synergy has made it possible to reconstruct the long-term dynamics of the man-environment interaction and to understand how Cultural, climatic and commercial factors have influenced the spread of the olive tree.
Zanchetta adds:
The expansion of the olive tree in Sicily it cannot be explained only by favorable environmental conditions. Is the result of human decisionsagricultural techniques e Exchange networks who crossed the centuries and transformed the Mediterranean agricultural landscape.
