Throughout the history olive has represented peace and hope in different cultures and for some others olive tree and its fruit have been accepted to be holy. It is for this reason that things other than olive were capable of attracted human life more than olive very little. Olive that has a history 10 thousand years to present has been the source of many legend by way of being considered holy from Greek athletes, saints and first medical doctors to gods and goddesses of old history.

Before his death Adam begged for mercy from god and appointed his son Sit for this. Sit took three seeds from the tree of good and evil in the Garden of Eden and placed them inside the mouth of his father. When his father was buried the seeds sprout out and grew into an olive tree, cedar tree and cypress tree.

When we look into the traditions that come along from past to present, the leaves of the olive tree have symbolized victory, wisdom and peace; the dove returning back to Noah’s Ark with a branch of olive tree has been considered a sign indicating the end of that great big flood disaster. Other than the geography that we are in, it is rather impossible to see the historical traces of olive in terms of its place whether in the past or in the present daily life.

There are two opinions on the subject of the origin of olive: first one is that olive made its first appearance in the Aegean and Mediterranean Parts of Anatolia and Syria and Lebanon and second opinion on the other hand argues that its origin is Egypt and the parts of Atlas Mountains of North Africa. Mesopotamia civilization which was created by Assyrians and Babylonians were familiar with olive they even considered it as trading tool. It is seeing from the pots and pans that have been found in the excavations carried out in Urla and Çeşme that they have been used in producing olive and products of olives and that they go all the way back to the 3rd century Before Christ (B.C.). Another conclusion arrived from the excavations is that the olive has an industry of at least five thousand years. In the Hellenistic era olive tree used to be considered holly and people who cut olive trees down used to be punished with death or sent into exile.

Coming across with the amphora that have been used for the purpose of storing and carrying olive found in Urla also in colonies at Black Sea and other set of locations indicates that olive was an importing and exporting product at the same time. Special vessels were being assembled at Mediterranean in order to perform trading. Olive business expanded in time and spread into areas, where climate and soil were suitable such as Australia, South Africa and China.

It is stated in Koran that olive tree comes from Mount Sinai and oil is obtained from its fruits and that this oil is used to give flavor to food. It is rather hard to grow, look after and maintain an olive tree but the tree pays for this back in return with generosity. Perhaps this is the reason why the olive is the symbol of peace.