Chalcolithic period (c. 3600–3300 BCE) There is evidence for early olive use and possible cultivation in the southern Levant during the Chalcolithic. Archaeobotanical remains, including olive pits, wood, and crushing residues, have been found at sites such as Tel Tsaf in the Jordan Valley, dated to ~7200–6700 BP (approximately 5300–4700 BCE), indicating olive oil production and intensive use. While these findings suggest early horticultural practices, it is difficult to distinguish wild from truly cultivated olives in these early contexts. Recent studies indicate that early olive oil production and horticultural use were likely underway by the Middle Chalcolithic (~6500 BP), but widespread organized cultivation and oil technologies are more clearly established in the Early Bronze Age.
Bronze Age (c. 3300–1200 BCE) During the Bronze Age, olive cultivation expanded and became a significant component of local economies. Evidence of the olive oil trade is found in shipwrecks, such as the
Uluburun shipwreck, which may have been operated by a Syro-
Canaanite crew.
Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods (c. 332 BCE–636 CE) Under Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine influence, olive cultivation and oil production continued to expand across Palestine. Excavations reveal numerous olive presses and large storage installations, including rock‑cut press facilities and amphora storage, indicating both local use and participation in wider Mediterranean trade networks. The technological innovation known as the *bad* press — consisting of a pierced round stone rotated on a horizontal stone to crush olives — was used throughout much of this period and persisted in traditional presses into later centuries. This method increased extraction efficiency and supported larger production volumes.
Early Islamic period (c. 636–1516 CE) Following the Arab‑Muslim conquests of the seventh century CE, olive cultivation remained widespread in Palestine. Archaeological and historical research indicates that olive oil production in Palestine continued from the Byzantine period into the Early Islamic period (7th–11th centuries). Material evidence from sites across the southern Levant shows continuity in olive cultivation and oil‑pressing technologies, and many installations remained in use or were adapted after the Arab‑Muslim conquests rather than being abandoned entirely. Olive oil continued to be used for domestic consumption, and documentary evidence from ninth‑century Egypt records deliveries of oil originating in Palestine, demonstrating participation of local producers in wider commercial networks. Archaeological finds of Palestinian amphorae in Egypt further attest to this trade. Local agricultural practices persisted among rural communities, although the scale and organization of production varied over time. In the 19th century, olive tree cultivation and oil production dominated much of the agricultural landscape in Palestine, particularly in the highlands. Ottoman authorities applied agricultural policies that impacted village life, including regulations on peasant residence and labor tied to olive cultivation. Olive oil was used locally for lighting, food, soap production, and body care, and was also a significant commercial commodity. Production techniques evolved over the century with the introduction of semi‑mechanical iron screw presses, which became integrated into traditional press buildings in many villages and towns, reflecting a form of proto‑industrial development in the rural olive oil sector. These presses are documented as material remnants in abandoned facilities across Palestinian villages. By the late Ottoman period, the area around
Nablus had become a major center of olive cultivation and oil production. In the period between 1700 and 1900, the area around Nablus had developed into a major area for olive production, and the olive oil was used in lieu of money. The oil was stored in deep wells in the ground in the city and surrounding villages, which was then used by merchants to make payments. By the late 19th century, cash crops in Ottoman Palestine were being rapidly expanded, and by 1914, there were 475 thousand
dunam of olive groves (about 47.5 thousand hectares or 112 thousand acres) across the area that was part of the
Ottoman Empire. In the late Ottoman period before the First World War, olive oil produced near
Nablus was hard to export due to its relatively high acidity, high price, and limited shelf-life.
British Mandate period (1920–1948) During the
British Mandate era, olive cultivation continued to be a major component of Palestinian agriculture. According to agricultural records from the period, the area of land planted with olives expanded significantly compared with the late Ottoman era. By the mid‑1940s, olives were one of the most widely cultivated permanent crops in Palestine, with **595,405 dunums (approximately 59,540 hectares) planted with olive trees in 1944–45**. Of this area, the vast majority was owned and farmed by Palestinian Arab farmers, with a small fraction under other ownership. That year, the estimated olive harvest reached **75,341 tons of olives**, with millions of productive trees bearing fruit under varying climatic conditions. The number of fruitful olive trees in that period was estimated in the millions, with individual tree yields varying according to weather and soil conditions. During drought years, average yields were about 2 kg per tree, while in more fruitful years, some trees yielded up to 12 kg, producing an average per tree output of around 7 kg annually. Land planted with olives continued to increase throughout the Mandate period, reflecting both the deep cultural integration of olive cultivation and its economic importance. Agricultural surveys and historical research indicate that by the 1940s olive groves covered roughly **600,000 dunums**, with nearly all trees in bearing condition and overwhelmingly under Palestinian Arab ownership, demonstrating continuity and growth in the sector relative to earlier decades. Olive groves were cultivated across the hilly regions of Palestine, from the Galilee and Samaria to the central highlands and down to the southern hills, with village and family holdings forming the backbone of production. The annual olive harvest remained a significant seasonal event, shaping agricultural calendars and rural labour patterns across Palestinian villages. Harvesting practices in this period largely continued traditional methods, with olives picked by hand or with simple tools before being transported to village presses and local mills for pressing into oil. Olive oil, produced in these years, served primarily domestic needs but also contributed to local markets. A portion of the olive crop was consumed locally as edible oil, while other fractions were used for soap making, table olives, and occasional trade within regional markets. The Mandate period thus saw both an increase in olive cultivation area and sustained reliance on olives and olive oil as key agricultural outputs in Palestinian rural economies.
Post‑1948 and the Israeli occupation (1948–present) Following the 1948
Nakba, which led to the displacement of an estimated 700,000 Palestinians and the depopulation of hundreds of villages, olive cultivation in historic Palestine was profoundly affected. Before 1948, Palestinian Arab farms accounted for the overwhelming majority of olive production; in the 1944–45 agricultural season, approximately 97.5 % of nearly 80,000 tons of olives harvested in Palestine were grown by Arab Palestinian farmers, illustrating the centrality of olives to Palestinian agriculture. The aftermath resulted in widespread loss of access to olive groves due to displacement, land confiscation, and destruction of villages. Many Palestinian farmers who became refugees were unable to return to their lands and olive trees, which were often left untended, destroyed, or repurposed. Some displaced farmers attempted to return to harvest olives from abandoned lands, often at great personal risk, though most were prevented by hostilities and armed presence. Palestinians who were able to remain in territories incorporated into Israel after 1948, and as a result became citizens of the Israeli state, particularly in the Galilee, continued to cultivate olives under the constraints of new agricultural and land tenure policies. Between 1948 and 1955, Palestinian farmers adapted to regulations while maintaining cultivation on their remaining lands. In addition to land expropriation, Palestinian farmers in Israel faced disparities in access to agricultural resources. Official agricultural statistics from this era show that Arab villages, despite cultivating a significant portion of the country’s field crops, were allocated only a small percentage of national agricultural water consumption. This inequitable distribution of water resources constrained the ability to maintain intensive cultivation, including olive groves under rain‑fed conditions that were typical of Palestinian agriculture. Despite these challenges, olive cultivation persisted on the remaining village lands. The adaptation to reduced holdings and limited irrigation occurred alongside shifts in rural labour patterns, with some families supplementing agricultural income through wage labour while continuing to harvest olives. In some communities such as Majd al‑Krum, a substantial portion of the surviving cultivated land was devoted to olive groves even after significant land loss, though many farmers faced ongoing challenges related to soil quality, water scarcity, and fragmentation of plots. In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, under Jordanian and Egyptian administration respectively until 1967, Olive cultivation remained a key agricultural resource for subsistence and local market economies, although overall land holdings were reduced compared with pre‑1948 levels due to displacement. After the
occupation of Palestine, Israeli forces targeted olive trees as a primary form of land acquisition and began to uproot Palestinian olive trees in 1967, with an estimated 830,000 olive trees uprooted between 1967 and 2009. The olive harvest was the primary source of income for Palestinians during the first
Intifada and was so essential for the Palestinian communities that public institutions, universities, and public schools closed for the olive season so as many people as possible could help with the harvest. In 2014,
UNESCO designated
Battir as a World Heritage site because of its agricultural significance as its olive production characterizes the landscape through "extensive agricultural terraces, water springs, ancient irrigation systems, human-settlement remains, olive presses, and an historic core." Currently, olive oil is an essential export for Palestinians in the West Bank. Marketing consultant Robert Massoud states, "There is very little Palestinians can export but olive oil." This dependence on olive oil exports is widespread throughout the West Bank to the point that, to most villagers, olive oil represents economic security. ==Production==