The first use of olives in Africa around 100,000 years ago
he olive tree was an iconic plant for most of the past Mediterranean civilizations, for which it had important economic value. Here we report the earliest use of fruits and wood from olive trees in Africa so far, around 100,000 years ago. These findings suggest the presence of olive trees on the Atlantic coast of Morocco during most of the last glacial period, and the use of olives by the early Homo sapiens for fuel management and most probably for consumption.
Across the Mediterranean Basin, two varieties of olive trees (Olea europaea) exist: a wild O. europaea subsp. europaea L. var. sylvestris and a cultivated O. europaea subsp. europaea L. var. europaea. The oldest wild olive findings have been recovered at the Acheulean site Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (Israel), dating back to ~790 thousand years ago (ka) 1. Since then, little archaeological evidence has been retrieved 2-5 : circa 62-55, 49 and 43-41 ka in Greece, Israel and Spain, respectively. From ~30 ka onwards, archaeological occurrences of olive remain rather rare until the Epipalaeolithic 4,6. It is only from the Neolithic onwards that wild olives have been intensively used by Mediterranean human groups, for the direct use of the entire tree (for example, food, fuel, lighting, medicine and cosmetics) and for their conceptualization in mythology and religion 7,8 .
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359400955_The_first_use_of_olives_in_Africa_around_100000_years_ago