Olive World Tree

  

"Olive trees catch fire very easily. I call these monumental trees because they survive over such a long time. They are like relics. 

 And now you see them burn in just a few seconds,” Mitri says.

On the hillsides of Baanoub, a tiny village in the mountains near Sidon, the largest city in southern Lebanon, 

 grow ancient olive trees, many dating back more than 2,000 years. 

 Yasmina Zaher manages the land with her husband. "

"I think of everything that these trees have endured: occupations, calamities, wars, fires, earthquakes. And they are still here,” she says." 

"Now, according to a Washington Post analysis of satellite footage, nearly a quarter of all the south’s buildings have been destroyed.  

Many are family homes built on ancestral land, passed down through generations. Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN special rapporteur on housing, said on social media that Israel was committing domicide in Lebanon." 

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"Around 100,000 years ago, olives were used by humans in Africa, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, for fuel and most probably for consumption. 

Wild olive trees, or oleasters, have been collected in the Eastern Mediterranean since ~19,000 BP. 

The genome of cultivated olives reflects their origin from oleaster populations in the Eastern Mediterranean. 

 The olive plant was first cultivated some 7,000 years ago in Mediterranean regions. " 

"For thousands of years olives were grown primarily for lamp oil, with little regard for culinary flavor. 

 Its origin can be traced to the Levant based on written tablets, olive pits, and wood fragments found in ancient tombs. 

As far back as 3000 BC, olives were grown commercially in Crete and may have been the source of the wealth of the Minoan civilization. " 

"Olives were one of the main elements in ancient Israelite cuisine. Olive oil was used for not only food and cooking, but also lighting, sacrificial offerings, ointment, and anointment for priestly or royal office. 

The olive tree is one of the first plants mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament), and one of the most significant. An olive branch (or leaf, depending on translation) was brought back to Noah by a dove to demonstrate that the flood was over (Book of Genesis 8:11)" 

"In Palestine the olive tree and plant carry the symbolic connotations of resilience, health, ancestral ties and community. Researchers have found that the olive tree is tied into the Palestinians' Sutra, A’wana and Sumud. 

 The tree is a means of survival and security, represents their bond to their land, community and animals. Olive trees also serve as a symbol of their identities, which include their physical and emotional aspects and their socio-cultural values. 

Palestinian people view the olive trees as the first witnesses that Palestine is their homeland. " 

 

"The Great Seal of the United States first used in 1782 depicts an eagle clutching an olive branch in one of its talons, indicating the power of peace.

United Nations

The Flag of the United Nations adopted in 1946 is a world map with two olive branches." 

"An olive tree in Mouriscas, Abrantes, Portugal, (Oliveira do Mouchão) is one of the oldest known olive trees still alive to this day, with an estimated age of  

3,350 years, planted approximately at the beginning of the Atlantic Bronze Age.

An olive tree in the city of Bar in Montenegro has an estimated age of between 2,014 and 2,480 years.

An olive tree on the island of Brijuni in Croatia has a radiocarbon dating age of about 1,600 years.  

It still gives fruit (about 30 kg or 66 lb per year), which is made into olive oil." 

"An olive tree in west Athens, named Plato's Olive Tree, is thought to be a remnant of the grove where Plato's Academy was situated, making it an estimated 2,400 years old. 

The tree consisted of a cavernous trunk from which a few branches were still sprouting in 1975 when a traffic accident caused a bus to uproot it. Following that the trunk was preserved and displayed in the nearby Agricultural University of Athens. In 2013 it was reported that the remaining part of the trunk was uprooted and stolen, allegedly to serve as firewood. 

The age of an olive tree in Crete, the Finix Olive, is claimed to be more than 2,000 years, based on archaeological evidence around the tree. " 

The olive tree of Vouves in Crete has an age estimated at between 2,000 and 4,000 years.

An olive tree called Farga d'Arió in Ulldecona, Catalonia, Spain, has been estimated (with laser-perimetry methods) to date back to 314 AD, which would mean that it was planted when Constantine the Great was Roman emperor.

Some Italian olive trees are believed to date back to Ancient Rome (8th century BC to 5th century AD), although identifying progenitor trees in ancient sources is difficult.  

There are other trees about 1,000 years old in the same garden. The 15th-century trees of Olivo della Linza, at Alliste in the Province of Lecce in Apulia on the Italian mainland, were noted by Bishop Ludovico de Pennis during his pastoral visit to the Diocese of Nardò-Gallipoli in 1452. " 

"The village of Bcheale, Lebanon, claims to have the oldest olive trees in the world (4000 BC for the oldest), but no scientific study supports these claims. Other trees in the towns of Amioun appear to be at least 1,500 years old."  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive 

"The olive is one of the "trinity" or "triad" of basic ingredients in Mediterranean cuisine, the other two being wheat for bread, pasta, and couscous; and the grape for wine."