Rachel E Dollahite and Dr. Roger Macfarlane, Humanities
Olive tree cultivation and olive oil production was a fundamental aspect of life for ancient civilizations surrounding the Mediterranean Sea and the industry continues to form a vital part of life for the people living in those climates that are favorable to olive trees. My project was in connection with the Apolline Project headed by Dr. Roger Macfarlane of BYU and Girolamo Ferdinando De Semone of Instituto de Suor Orsola Benincasa in Naples, which is conducting an archeological project of a villa rustica on the Northern slopes of Mt Vesuvius. I sought to learn more about the production of olive oil in ancient Rome and especially in the Campanian region around Mt Vesuvius.
At Boscoreale, a well-preserved villa rustica on the southern side of Mt Vesuvius and a victim of the eruption in AD 79, wine production was the main occupation. However, several trees in the yard are identified as various fruit trees, including olive trees. At Pompeii, ceramic jars with imprints of Spain and Northern Africa that once held imported and expensive olive oil have been found. These two pieces of evidence indicate that at the height of the Roman Empire there was a double standard of sorts: the wealthy—who required as much or more oil as the common farmer—purchased fine oil from abroad, while the common farmer was able to support his needs for oil by the produce that he himself made.
The villa rustica under excavation on the Northern side of Mt Vesuvius was not destroyed by the famous eruption of 79, but was likely last inhabited in the 400s AD. This was after the decline of the Roman Empire, when the oil trade with Spain and Africa had declined as well. Likely, all the oil necessary for every day life (light, food, cooking, hygiene, etc.) was produced locally. I wanted to find out exactly what that process was, through finding the ancient Latin sources that discuss the subject of olive tree cultivation and oil pressing, and through seeing first hand the process of making olives into that essential oil.
Last year in Italy I began on my project involving olive oil. During Spring Term 2005 I delved into Virgil’s poem the Georgics and found some interesting literary interpretations about Virgil’s use of the olive and its symbolism. This year (Spring 2006), however, I wanted to approach olives from a more practical side. In Italy, I visited an olive factory where the ancient process of extracting the oil from the olives is still followed, albeit with automatic machinery. I photographed the machines and the process thoroughly, in order to illustrate a website with the images of the process as I described what happens, step-by-step.
I then created a website that will be accessible to anyone interested in how olive oil is currently made, the ancient myths surrounding the symbols of the olive tree beginning in Greece and continued by Latin poets such as Virgil in his poem about the earth and farmers, and the actual Latin texts of authors such as Cato and Pliny. The texts in Latin are accompanied by English translations so that those not familiar with Latin can still read what these ancient authors recorded about the process of creating oil from olives, and their personal opinions about topics such as the best type of olive for eating.
The website will be available through the Herculaneum and Apolline Project website, as well as a stand-alone website that will be accessible via its own URL. I hope that should evidence of an olive grove or a pressing floor come to light at the villa rustica on the North slope of Mt Vesuvius, the information I have gathered and presented will be useful to those interested in the rich history and the actual process of cultivating and producing olive oil.