In Greece , two very important civilizations flourished about 5.000 years ago : Minoan civilization in the island of Crete (3.000 BC - 1.470 BC) and little after the Mycenaean civilization in Mycenae (1.700 BC-1000 BC), which is a small city near Athens.

  The Minoan civilization of the Greek island of Crete, who was senior, flourished in the period 3.000 BC - 1.470 BC. , befire 5.000 years. Investigations have been concluded that since then, Greeks were using olive oil in their diet.Also recently discovered remains of olive oil in cooking utensils that were used in the island of Crete 6.500 years old, fact that proves its use in cooking.

  The younger samples (of the bronze age) show that the people of Crete ate foods (vegetables, legumes, meat) cooked with olive oil. The famous tripod pots of prehistoric Crete, Minoan, and Mycenaean times, revealing a big secret of them : Inside them, people of that distant time, cooked in olive oil collected by their olives!

 From historical researches it has been proved that ancient Greeks were the ones who first cultivated olive tree in Europe and spread olive cultivation and the use of olive oil to the other peoples of the Mediterranean. They believed that the olive tree is sacred and a source of life and health.

  The Roman traveler, philosopher and historian Gaius Plinius Secundus (23AD - 79 AD) indicate that neither Italy nor Spain nor Tunis knew olive and its cultivation.