Egypt

News: Oldest olive wood in Egypt

AERA

I have no idea when this news item became available on the AERA website because it doesn't actually say (unless I'm suffering from selective blindness), which is more than a little frustrating. I don't appear to have posted about it before so here's an extract and my apologies if this is an old story.

Researchers at Ancient Egypt Research Associates, Inc., the premier non-profit organization conducting original archaeological research and educational programs in Egypt, have discovered new evidence suggesting that olive wood was present in ancient Egypt as early as 2551- 2523 BCE, between 500 to 700 years before previously believed, a find that may provide new insights into the life of the pyramid builders.

The discovery, made by AERA charcoal analyst Rainer Gerisch, suggests that olive wood was at least present, if not grown, in Egypt as early as the time of Pharaoh Menkaure (about 2551-2523 BCE), builder of the third Giza pyramid. Until now, the earliest known traces of olive were fruit pits found in 12th Dynasty deposits at Memphis. Even then, there are almost no other archaeological finds of olive until the 18th Dynasty (about 1569-1081 BCE).

The first definitive evidence that Egyptians were growing olives dates from the Graeco-Roman era (305 BCE-337 CE). With AERA's new evidence, scientists can now conclude that the olive wood is genuinely part of the Old Kingdom settlement remains, dating at least 500 years earlier than any other known specimens in Egypt.

Although there is evidence suggesting that the olive wood was imported, two important facts undermine this hypothesis.

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Egypt