Olive Oil Culture History IV - Ancient Trade Commodity
16-04-2025
10:36
Photo; Silver Phoenician coin, size about 2.5 cm, weight about 15 gr, galley with roaring lion head on its prow above the waves, shield and helmeted soldiers (hoplites) on the galley, mythical winged seahorse under the wavy sea, snail shell (carnivorous murex or muricidae sea snail from which the purple color is obtained) depicted just below the seahorse.
Phoenician gold and silver coins are among the archaeological objects frequently found on the Mediterranean coast. These coins are considered evidence of the extensive trade network of the Phoenicians, also known as the "Lords of the Mediterranean" or "People of the Homeland of Purple". At that time, the color purple was a symbol of power, prestige and wealth. Only 1 gram of purple dye could be produced from approximately 10,000 murex and this could only dye the hem of a garment a dark color, therefore it was more valuable than gold of the same weight, and was an indicator of the Phoenician textile trade. Historically, especially during the Roman and Byzantine periods, silk and purple dye were extremely expensive, and when imported silk from the Far East was dyed with this rare purple, a showiness befitting the rulers emerged, the shade of purple showed your place in the palace hierarchy. Byzantium's access to purple dye would decrease with the expansion of the Islamic Civilization's sovereignty, and its prestige would disappear over time.
In front of the sea horse's tail, there are two letters from the 22-letter, all-consonant alphabet of the Phoenicians, the origin of the Latin alphabet.
In ancient times, when coins had not yet been invented, olive oil production was a valuable commodity that required labor, was not available in every geography, and was demanded by the Mediterranean peoples. It could be stored and preserved for long periods in amphorae and earthenware barrels, and could be transported safely over long distances. Microorganisms do not grow in well-preserved olive oil, it contains natural antimicrobial molecules, and therefore, being an agricultural product that does not spoil in a short time, made it a suitable medium of exchange and a commodity used in the market economy of ancient times. It could be measured numerically, it was a commodity that could be compared, and it had certain quality standards that were accepted, albeit few, at that time. All these features would turn olive oil into an ancient commercial tool used in the debt system.
Archaeological data suggests that the people of the interior of Anatolia met their olive oil needs from the Fertile Crescent regions. Clay tablets found in the Kanesh ruins in the Kayseri region contain evidence of a first-class olive oil order placed by a local merchant in the capital of the Assyrian State - the largest and most powerful state rising in the southeastern extension of the Fertile Crescent. The Assyrian Empire of that time had reached a strong economic position with its commercial ventures into Anatolia. In the period when these tablets, thought to date back to 2000 BC, were written, cities under the rule of local rulers began to rise instead of small village communities in Anatolia, and these cities became important markets with their developing division of labor and increasing populations.
Historians have called this period, which lasted about 200 years, the "Assyrian Trade Colonies Age." Olive oil was a product in demand in all settlements, including the new settlements that arose in the interior regions of Anatolia where olive cultivation was not practiced, and was consumed primarily for cosmetics and lighting. The main goods exported from the Fertile Crescent included tin, textiles, ornaments, and some scented ointments thought to contain olive oil.
It is understood from clay tablet records that local people who earned income from olive farming made agreements with Assyrian merchants and that they would pay their debts to the merchants at the first olive harvest. This economic culture has continued almost to the present day, peasant farmers would get into debt to the merchants in the city to be paid at harvest time, they would sign documents called "promissory notes" stating that they were indebted and give them to the merchants.
By 1400 BC, tablets unearthed in the ancient Mediterranean coastal port city of Ugarit on the northwestern side of the Fertile Crescent - near Latakia in modern-day Syria - show that olive cultivation was of secondary importance to winemaking. There are documents indicating that olive oil was used in taxes paid to the palace and that olive oil was even given in return for certain services at the palace. In addition, there are archaeological findings documenting the olive oil trade between Ugarit, Cyprus and Egypt.
Thanks to the olive tree, which reached the Mediterranean coast from its homeland in Southern Anatolia and then the islands, the Phoenicians and Cretans created their economic wealth with olive oil exports between 1000-1500 BC.
The Phoenicians' geographical location , sandwiched between mountainous areas and the sea , was not very suitable for agriculture; the urban population would increase but the region's agricultural production would not be enough to feed the population. These conditions would transform them into a society rich in artisans, entrepreneurs, merchants, seafarers and urbanites. The lands just behind the mountains to the east of the coastal cities famous for their artisans are a geography where olive farming has been carried out for centuries. During archaeological excavations carried out in a village called Kla in Israel in the 9th century BC, bowls carved out of rocks for olive oil production and cisterns used to store oil were unearthed. The best example of large-scale industrial production of olive oil is that nearly 100 pole presses used for pressing olive paste from the Iron Age (1100 BC and later) were found in the town of Ekron in Palestine. Located in the Levant Region, a settlement on the Mediterranean coast on the southwest side of the Fertile Crescent, this city was established during the Assyrians' reign in the 7th century BC. It was founded in the 700s. Only 4% of the ancient city, thought to have spread over an area of 300,000 m2, has been excavated and 115 olive oil production mechanisms have been unearthed. It has been estimated that production was 500 tons per day. When 1000 BC was reached, the urban artisan Phoenicians, defined as “the people of the Tyrian or Tyrian purple homeland”, would reach the peak of organized overseas transportation activities, especially in the olive oil and wine trade in the Mediterranean. The valuable goods produced by the urban settled artisans from imported gold, silver, ivory and jewelry would increase to the point of being exported. A merchant and sailor class would rise who would sell these commercial goods to the coastal cities of the Mediterranean. They would establish settlements and carry out cultural transportation in the places they reached through maritime activities that spread beyond the Strait of Gibraltar . Instead of an expansionist dominant colonization, they would prefer to act as intermediaries between the local societies in the geography they reached and the East. They played a significant role in the formation of the mixed structure of Eastern and Western Mediterranean cultures (Egypt, Greece, Anatolian coast and Aegean islands) through their trading activities. Archaeological findings show that wine and olive oil were the leading goods they transported.
In those days, olive oil was an export for the Syrian and Palestinian markets, where olive farming was widespread, and an import for Egypt and Greece, which could not produce enough olives to meet demand. In Homer's works, there are generalizations about the Phoenicians being deceptive, cunning and greedy. However, it is a fact agreed upon by historians that they played a role in the spread of olive farming in the Mediterranean by first bringing olive oil and then olive saplings to the Aegean Islands and the Greek Peninsula.
This organization, which has a history dating back to 1600 BC, introduced olive cultivation to the island and Mediterranean coastal peoples, while also meeting the olive oil needs of the growing Aegean and Mediterranean coastal city-states for many years. This merchant class in the Phoenician cities that rose on the shores of the Palestinian region would maintain their leading positions in the olive oil trade until 800 BC.
Even during the Roman Empire, when coins had already been invented, olive oil continued to be a commodity used instead of money for taxes and rents.
Olive oil, which is not as practical as coins in terms of portability and standardization, loses its function as a means of payment over time.
Today, a practice reminiscent of the past is still alive; some producers who harvest their olives do not pay a pressing fee to the oil mills they bring their olives to, but leave a portion of the oil produced to the mills as the pressing fee.
Compiled by: Uğur Saraçoğlu, Physician, Olive and Olive Oil Producer (ugisaracoglu@yahoo.com.tr)
Source:
1. Foreign Traders in Anatolia during the Assyrian Trading Colonies Period, Gamze İme, PhD Student, Aksaray University, Institute of Social Sciences, Department of History, International Journal of Ancient History, 2/2, September 2020 Samsun.
2. Deviz Trade and Ports in Western Anatolia in Antiquity, PhD Thesis, Hüsniye Esra Tufanoğlu, TC Istanbul University, Institute of Social Sciences, Istanbul, 2017.
3. Phoenician Colonization Movements in the Mediterranean from the Early Iron Age (IX-VI. centuries BC), Refik Kaan Üçler, Res. Asst., Kırklareli University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of History, Kırklareli, Cedrus X (2022), 47-67.
4. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180801-tyrian-purple-the-regal-colour-taken-from-mollusc-mucus .
5. https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub371/entry-8965.html .
6. https://eclecticlight.co/2017/07/09/the-dog-a-shell-and-the-mark-of-high-office/ .
7. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/purple-reign-passion-phoenician-dye-built-vast-trading-empire .
8. https://history1800ksweeney.wordpress.com/2016/11/ .
9. https://www.tifcollection.com/phoenicia-byblos--ar-dishekel .
10. https://digfir-published.macmillanusa.com/mckayunderstanding2e/asset/img_ch2/86757_MCK2E_CH02_P02.01.html .
Phoenician gold and silver coins are among the archaeological objects frequently found on the Mediterranean coast. These coins are considered evidence of the extensive trade network of the Phoenicians, also known as the "Lords of the Mediterranean" or "People of the Homeland of Purple". At that time, the color purple was a symbol of power, prestige and wealth. Only 1 gram of purple dye could be produced from approximately 10,000 murex and this could only dye the hem of a garment a dark color, therefore it was more valuable than gold of the same weight, and was an indicator of the Phoenician textile trade. Historically, especially during the Roman and Byzantine periods, silk and purple dye were extremely expensive, and when imported silk from the Far East was dyed with this rare purple, a showiness befitting the rulers emerged, the shade of purple showed your place in the palace hierarchy. Byzantium's access to purple dye would decrease with the expansion of the Islamic Civilization's sovereignty, and its prestige would disappear over time.
In front of the sea horse's tail, there are two letters from the 22-letter, all-consonant alphabet of the Phoenicians, the origin of the Latin alphabet.
In ancient times, when coins had not yet been invented, olive oil production was a valuable commodity that required labor, was not available in every geography, and was demanded by the Mediterranean peoples. It could be stored and preserved for long periods in amphorae and earthenware barrels, and could be transported safely over long distances. Microorganisms do not grow in well-preserved olive oil, it contains natural antimicrobial molecules, and therefore, being an agricultural product that does not spoil in a short time, made it a suitable medium of exchange and a commodity used in the market economy of ancient times. It could be measured numerically, it was a commodity that could be compared, and it had certain quality standards that were accepted, albeit few, at that time. All these features would turn olive oil into an ancient commercial tool used in the debt system.
Archaeological data suggests that the people of the interior of Anatolia met their olive oil needs from the Fertile Crescent regions. Clay tablets found in the Kanesh ruins in the Kayseri region contain evidence of a first-class olive oil order placed by a local merchant in the capital of the Assyrian State - the largest and most powerful state rising in the southeastern extension of the Fertile Crescent. The Assyrian Empire of that time had reached a strong economic position with its commercial ventures into Anatolia. In the period when these tablets, thought to date back to 2000 BC, were written, cities under the rule of local rulers began to rise instead of small village communities in Anatolia, and these cities became important markets with their developing division of labor and increasing populations.
Historians have called this period, which lasted about 200 years, the "Assyrian Trade Colonies Age." Olive oil was a product in demand in all settlements, including the new settlements that arose in the interior regions of Anatolia where olive cultivation was not practiced, and was consumed primarily for cosmetics and lighting. The main goods exported from the Fertile Crescent included tin, textiles, ornaments, and some scented ointments thought to contain olive oil.
It is understood from clay tablet records that local people who earned income from olive farming made agreements with Assyrian merchants and that they would pay their debts to the merchants at the first olive harvest. This economic culture has continued almost to the present day, peasant farmers would get into debt to the merchants in the city to be paid at harvest time, they would sign documents called "promissory notes" stating that they were indebted and give them to the merchants.
By 1400 BC, tablets unearthed in the ancient Mediterranean coastal port city of Ugarit on the northwestern side of the Fertile Crescent - near Latakia in modern-day Syria - show that olive cultivation was of secondary importance to winemaking. There are documents indicating that olive oil was used in taxes paid to the palace and that olive oil was even given in return for certain services at the palace. In addition, there are archaeological findings documenting the olive oil trade between Ugarit, Cyprus and Egypt.
Thanks to the olive tree, which reached the Mediterranean coast from its homeland in Southern Anatolia and then the islands, the Phoenicians and Cretans created their economic wealth with olive oil exports between 1000-1500 BC.
The Phoenicians' geographical location , sandwiched between mountainous areas and the sea , was not very suitable for agriculture; the urban population would increase but the region's agricultural production would not be enough to feed the population. These conditions would transform them into a society rich in artisans, entrepreneurs, merchants, seafarers and urbanites. The lands just behind the mountains to the east of the coastal cities famous for their artisans are a geography where olive farming has been carried out for centuries. During archaeological excavations carried out in a village called Kla in Israel in the 9th century BC, bowls carved out of rocks for olive oil production and cisterns used to store oil were unearthed. The best example of large-scale industrial production of olive oil is that nearly 100 pole presses used for pressing olive paste from the Iron Age (1100 BC and later) were found in the town of Ekron in Palestine. Located in the Levant Region, a settlement on the Mediterranean coast on the southwest side of the Fertile Crescent, this city was established during the Assyrians' reign in the 7th century BC. It was founded in the 700s. Only 4% of the ancient city, thought to have spread over an area of 300,000 m2, has been excavated and 115 olive oil production mechanisms have been unearthed. It has been estimated that production was 500 tons per day. When 1000 BC was reached, the urban artisan Phoenicians, defined as “the people of the Tyrian or Tyrian purple homeland”, would reach the peak of organized overseas transportation activities, especially in the olive oil and wine trade in the Mediterranean. The valuable goods produced by the urban settled artisans from imported gold, silver, ivory and jewelry would increase to the point of being exported. A merchant and sailor class would rise who would sell these commercial goods to the coastal cities of the Mediterranean. They would establish settlements and carry out cultural transportation in the places they reached through maritime activities that spread beyond the Strait of Gibraltar . Instead of an expansionist dominant colonization, they would prefer to act as intermediaries between the local societies in the geography they reached and the East. They played a significant role in the formation of the mixed structure of Eastern and Western Mediterranean cultures (Egypt, Greece, Anatolian coast and Aegean islands) through their trading activities. Archaeological findings show that wine and olive oil were the leading goods they transported.
In those days, olive oil was an export for the Syrian and Palestinian markets, where olive farming was widespread, and an import for Egypt and Greece, which could not produce enough olives to meet demand. In Homer's works, there are generalizations about the Phoenicians being deceptive, cunning and greedy. However, it is a fact agreed upon by historians that they played a role in the spread of olive farming in the Mediterranean by first bringing olive oil and then olive saplings to the Aegean Islands and the Greek Peninsula.
This organization, which has a history dating back to 1600 BC, introduced olive cultivation to the island and Mediterranean coastal peoples, while also meeting the olive oil needs of the growing Aegean and Mediterranean coastal city-states for many years. This merchant class in the Phoenician cities that rose on the shores of the Palestinian region would maintain their leading positions in the olive oil trade until 800 BC.
Even during the Roman Empire, when coins had already been invented, olive oil continued to be a commodity used instead of money for taxes and rents.
Olive oil, which is not as practical as coins in terms of portability and standardization, loses its function as a means of payment over time.
Today, a practice reminiscent of the past is still alive; some producers who harvest their olives do not pay a pressing fee to the oil mills they bring their olives to, but leave a portion of the oil produced to the mills as the pressing fee.
Compiled by: Uğur Saraçoğlu, Physician, Olive and Olive Oil Producer (ugisaracoglu@yahoo.com.tr)
Source:
1. Foreign Traders in Anatolia during the Assyrian Trading Colonies Period, Gamze İme, PhD Student, Aksaray University, Institute of Social Sciences, Department of History, International Journal of Ancient History, 2/2, September 2020 Samsun.
2. Deviz Trade and Ports in Western Anatolia in Antiquity, PhD Thesis, Hüsniye Esra Tufanoğlu, TC Istanbul University, Institute of Social Sciences, Istanbul, 2017.
3. Phoenician Colonization Movements in the Mediterranean from the Early Iron Age (IX-VI. centuries BC), Refik Kaan Üçler, Res. Asst., Kırklareli University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of History, Kırklareli, Cedrus X (2022), 47-67.
4. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180801-tyrian-purple-the-regal-colour-taken-from-mollusc-mucus .
5. https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub371/entry-8965.html .
6. https://eclecticlight.co/2017/07/09/the-dog-a-shell-and-the-mark-of-high-office/ .
7. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/purple-reign-passion-phoenician-dye-built-vast-trading-empire .
8. https://history1800ksweeney.wordpress.com/2016/11/ .
9. https://www.tifcollection.com/phoenicia-byblos--ar-dishekel .
10. https://digfir-published.macmillanusa.com/mckayunderstanding2e/asset/img_ch2/86757_MCK2E_CH02_P02.01.html .