Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T18:28:41.469Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Egyptian olive (Olea europaea subsp. europaea) in the later first millennium BC: origins and history using the morphometric analysis of olive stones

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Claire Newton ,
Jean-Frédéric Terral  and
Sarah Ivorra
Claire Newton*
Affiliation:
Centre de Bio-Archéologie et d'Écologie (CNRS UMR 5059/EPHE), Institut de Botanique (Université Montpellier 2), 163 rue A. Broussonnet, 34090 Montpellier, France
Jean-Frédéric Terral*
Affiliation:
Centre de Bio-Archéologie et d'Écologie (CNRS UMR 5059/EPHE), Institut de Botanique (Université Montpellier 2), 163 rue A. Broussonnet, 34090 Montpellier, France
Sarah Ivorra*
Affiliation:
Centre de Bio-Archéologie et d'Écologie (CNRS UMR 5059/EPHE), Institut de Botanique (Université Montpellier 2), 163 rue A. Broussonnet, 34090 Montpellier, France
*
1As above and Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale (IFAO), 37 Al-Cheikh Ali Yussef Street, Qasr Al Ainy BP 11562, Cairo, Egypt (Email: cnewton@univ-montp2.fr)
2Email: terral@univ-montp2.fr
3Email: ivorra@univ-montp2.fr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The authors examine a sample of olive stones from Egyptian contexts and show that from the first millennium BC, if not before, some of them relate to cultivars originating from the Levant. But equally prominent and just as early is another variety, of unknown origin and currently peculiar to Egypt. The method used is geometrical morphometric analysis – essentially classifying the olive stones by their shape.

Keywords

EgyptPersian periodRoman periodolive cultivationirrigationqanat
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 80 , Issue 308 , 1 June 2006 , pp. 405 - 414
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Asensi amorós, V. 2001. Madera de Egipto, madera importada. I: Contribucion del estudio de la anatomia de la madera para la comprension de la civilizacion egipcia, in Cervello Autuori, J. & Quevedo Alvarez, A. (ed.)... Ir a buscar leña, Estudios dedicados al prof. Jesus Lopez: 23–32. Barcelona: Aula Aegyptiaca - Studia 2.Google Scholar
Asensi amorós, V. 2003. L'étude du bois et de son commerce en Egypte: lacunes des connaissances actuelles et perspectives pour l’analyse xylologique, in Neumann, K. Butler, A. & Kahlheber, S. (ed.) Food, Fuel and Fields. Progress in African Archaeobotany: 177–86. Koln: Heinrich-Barth Institut.Google Scholar
Baldy, C. 1990. Le climat de l’olivier (Olea europaea L.). Ecologia Mediterranea 16: 113–21.Google Scholar
Bell, M. 1982. Preliminary report on the Mycenian Pottery from Deir el-Medina (1979-1980). Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte 68: 143–63.Google Scholar
Besnard, G. & Bervillé, A. 2000. Multiple origins foi Mediterranean olive (Olea europaea L. ssp. europaea) based upon mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms. Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, Paris (Sciences de la Vie) 323: 173–81.Google Scholar
Besnard, G., Khadari, B. Baradat, P. & Bervillé, A. 2002. Combination ofchloroplast and mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms to study cytoplasm genetic differentiation in the olive complex (Olea europaea L.). Theoretical and Applied Genetics 105: 139–44.Google Scholar
Bookstein, F.L. 1991. Morphometric tools for landmark data. Geometry and Biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bousquet, B. & Reddé, M. 1994. Les installations hydrauliques et les parcellaires dans la région de Tel Douch, in Menu, B. (ed.) Les problèmes institutionnels de l eau en égypte ancienne et dans VAntiquité mediteranéenne. Colloque AIDEA Vogüe 1992. Bibliothèque d’étude 60: 73–88. Cairo: IFAO.Google Scholar
Briant, P. 1997. Bulletin d’Histoire Achéménide (I), Topoi. Orient-Occident, Supplement 1, Recherches reécentes sur l Empire achéeméenide: 5-127.Google Scholar
Brun, J.-P. 2003. Le vin et l'huile dans la Méditerranée antique. Viticulture, oleéiculture et proceédées de transformation. Paris: Errance.Google Scholar
Brun, J.-P. & Reddé, M. . 2003. L’architecture des praesidia et la genèse des dépotoirs, VI. Al-Zarqâ’ (Maximianon), in Cuvigny, H. (ed.) La route de Myos Hormos. L’armee romaine dans le désert Orientald Égypte, vol. 1: 100–26. Cairo: IFAO.Google Scholar
Bülow-jacobsen, A. 2003. The traffic on the road and the provisioning of the stations, in Cuvigny, H. (ed.) La route de Myos Hormos. Lߣarmeée romaine dans le déesert Oriental d Égypte, vol. 2: 399–426. Cairo: IFAO.Google Scholar
Cappers, R. 1998. Archaeobotanical remains, in Sidebotham, S. & Wendrich, W. (ed.) Berenike ’96. Report of the Excavations at Berenika (Egyptian Red Sea Coast) and the Survey ofthe Eastern Desert: 289–330. Leiden: Research School CNWS.Google Scholar
De Vartavan, C. & Asensi Amorós, V. 1997. Codex ofAncient Egyptian Plant Remains. London: Triade Exploration.Google Scholar
Durand, E. & Flahault, C. 1886. Les limites de la région méditerraneénne en France. Bulletin de la Société Botanique Française, vol. 33: 24–34.Google Scholar
Germer, R. 1988. Katalog der altägyptischen Pflanzenreste der Berliner Museen. Ägyptologische Abhandlungen 47. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Germer, R. 1989. Die Blütenhalskragen aus RT 54. Miscellanea Aegyptologica Wolfgang Helck zum 75. Geburstag 89–96. Hamburg: Archäologisches Institut der Universität Hamburg.Google Scholar
Greiss, E. 1966. Identification anatomique des plantes provenant de trois fouilles archéologiques. Bulletin de l’Institut d Égypte 42–3: 17–38.Google Scholar
Grosser, D., Grünwald, R. & Kreissl, B. 1992. Holz - ein wíchtiger Werkstoff im Alten Ägypten, in Schoske, S. Kreissl, B. & Germer, R. (ed.) Anch - Blumen für das Leben - Pflanzen im Alten Ägypten. Schriften aus der Ägyptischen Sammlung (SAS), Heft 6: 251–61. Munich: Staatliche Sammlung Ägyptischer Kunst Museum.Google Scholar
Haldane, C. 1993. Direct evidence for organic cargoes in the Late Bronze Age. World Archaeology 24/3: 348–60.Google Scholar
Liphschitz, N., Gophna, R. Hartmann, M. & Biger, G. 1991. The beginning of olive (Olea europaea) cultivation in the Old World: a reassessment. Journal of Archaeological Science 18: 441–53.Google Scholar
Marcus, L.F., Corti, M. Loy, A. Naylor, G.J.P. & Slice, D. 1996. Advances in Morphometrics. NATO ASI series. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Meeks, D. 1993. Oléiculture et viticulture dans l’Égypte pharaonique, in Amouretti, M.-C & Brun, J.-P. (ed.) Oil and Wine Production in the Mediterranean Area, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, Supplément 26: 3–38. Athens: École Française d’Athènes.Google Scholar
Murray, M.A. 2000. Fruits, vegetables, pulses and condiments, in Nicholson, P. & Shaw, I. (ed.) Ancient Egyptian Materials andTechnology: 609–55. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Newton, C. 2002. Environnement végétal et économie en Haute-Égypte à Adaima au Prédynastique; Approches archèobotaniques comparatives de la Deuxiéme dynastie àl’éepoque romaine. Université Montpellier II, Montpellier. Unpublished PhD thesis.Google Scholar
Newton, C., Gonon, T. & Wuttmann, M. 2006. Un jardin d’oasis d’époque romaine á ’Ayn-Manâwir(Kharga, Égypte). BIFAO 105: 167–96.Google Scholar
Renfrew, J. 1985. Preliminary report on the botanical remains, in Kemp, B. (ed.) Amarna reports II, Occasional Publications 2: 175–90. London: Egypt Exploration Society.Google Scholar
Serpico, M. & White, R. 2000. Oil, fat and wax, in Nicholson, P. & Shaw, I. (ed.) AncientEgyptian Materials and Technology: 390–429. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tengberg, M. in prep. L’acquisition et l’utilisation des produits végétaux à Didymoi;Analyse archéobotanique. In the collective publication of the Didymoi praesidium.Google Scholar
Terral, J.-F., Alonso, N. Buxó I Capdevila, R. Chatti, N. Fabre, L. Fiorentino, G. Marinval, P. Pérez Jordá, G. Pradat, B. Rovira, N. Alibert, P. 2004. Historical biogeography of olive domestication (Olea europaea L.) as revealed by geometrical morphometry applied to biological and archaeological material. Journal of Biogeography 31: 63–77.Google Scholar
Thanheiser, U. 1999. Plant Remains from Kellis: First Results, in Hope, C. & Mills, A. (ed.) Dakhleh Oasis Project: Preliminary Reports on the 1992-1993 and 1993-1994FieldSeasons: 89–93. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Thanheiser, U. 2004. Die Pflanzenreste, in Hein, I. & Jánosi, P. (ed.) Tell el-Dab a XI. Areal A/V Siedlungsrelikte der späten 2. Zwischenzeit. Mit Beiträgen von Karin Kopetzky, Louise Maguire, Christa Mlinar, Graham Philip, Andreas Tillmann, Ursula Thanheiser aund Karl Grosschmidt 377–83. Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Thanheiser, U. in press. Über den Ackerbau in dynastischer Zeit. Ergebnisse der Untersuchung von Pflanzenresten aus Tell el-Dab’a, in Bietak, M. et al. (ed.) Tell el-Daba VIII. Interdisziplinäre Studien. Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Thiers, C. 1998. Le bassin de régulation de la qanât Q5, in Wuttmann, M. (ed.) ’Ayn-Manâwir et Douch, campagne 1998. Rapport interne: 21–6.Google Scholar
Thiers, C. 2000a. ’Ayn-Manâwir: l’habitat MMA, in Wuttmann, M. (ed.) ’Ayn-Manâwir et Douch, campagnes 1999et2000: 8–35.Google Scholar
Thiers, C. 2000b. ’Ayn-Manâwir: l’habitat MMA, in Wuttmann, M. (ed.) ’Ayn-Manâwir et Douch, campagnes 1999et2000: 41–8.Google Scholar
Tsujimara, S. 1995. Olive oil production in Akoris. Akoris. Report on the excavations at Akoris in Middle Egypt 1981-1992. Kyoto: Koyo Shobo: 464–70.Google Scholar
Wagner, G. 1987. Les oasis d’Égypte a l’époque grecque, romaine et byzantine d’après les documents grecs. Cairo: IFAO.Google Scholar
Wuttmann, M., Barakat, H. Bousquet, B. Chauveau, M. Gonon, T. Marchand, S. Robin, M. & Schweitzer, A. 1998. ’Ayn-Manâwîr (oasis de Kharga), Deuxième rapport préliminaire. BIFAO 98: 367–462.Google Scholar
Zahran, M. & Willis, A. 1992. The vegetation of Egypt. London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Zohary, D. & Hopf, M. 2000. Domestication of plants in the Old World. The origin and spread of cultivated plants in West Asia, Europe and the Nile Valley. Third edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar