From wild stands to orchards: an archaeobotanical investigation of the olive tree in prehistoric Aegean vegetation

This study aims to use a rich, millennia-long anthracological dataset to observe the role of Olea europaea L. in the Early and Middle Holocene woody vegetation used by prehistoric groups in the circum-Aegean area. A synthesis of previous and new data obtained in the context of ERC project PlantCult, reflects variations in the distribution and abundance of Olea in the anthracological record and allows to assess the factors potentially responsible for these, i.e. changes in climatic conditions, subsistence strategies and/or socioeconomic organization. It is suggested by the present anthracological evidence that Olea would have been abundant in the vegetation cover in lowland areas of the Aegean during the Last Interglacial and would have probably survived the Pleniglacial in refugia of thermophilous taxa in southern locations and the islands. According to the anthracological data from Mesolithic and Early Neolithic sites on the islands and lowland coastal areas, Olea would have been sparse during the Early Holocene in the Aegean. The earliest presence of the taxon is recorded in 7th mill. bce contexts on the northern Aegean insular sites. In the following millennia, Olea remained infrequent in the study area even though sclerophyllous vegetation is well-documented. Anthracological evidence for high Olea values is testified in the second half of the 4th mill. bce in the central and southern Aegean. In the 3rd mill. bce, the simultaneous increase of Olea in the anthracological datasets from Early Bronze Age settlements on the islands and the circum-Aegean lowlands and the pollen record, suggests a shift of the economy to olive management and arboriculture, probably enhanced by sea-routes and exchange networks established already since the Final Neolithic.