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The Egyptian olive (Olea europaea subsp. europaea) in the later first millennium BC: origins and history using the morphometric analysis of olive stones

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Claire Newton ,
Jean-Frédéric Terral  and
Sarah Ivorra
Claire Newton*
Affiliation:
Centre de Bio-Archéologie et d'Écologie (CNRS UMR 5059/EPHE), Institut de Botanique (Université Montpellier 2), 163 rue A. Broussonnet, 34090 Montpellier, France
Jean-Frédéric Terral*
Affiliation:
Centre de Bio-Archéologie et d'Écologie (CNRS UMR 5059/EPHE), Institut de Botanique (Université Montpellier 2), 163 rue A. Broussonnet, 34090 Montpellier, France
Sarah Ivorra*
Affiliation:
Centre de Bio-Archéologie et d'Écologie (CNRS UMR 5059/EPHE), Institut de Botanique (Université Montpellier 2), 163 rue A. Broussonnet, 34090 Montpellier, France
*
1As above and Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale (IFAO), 37 Al-Cheikh Ali Yussef Street, Qasr Al Ainy BP 11562, Cairo, Egypt (Email: cnewton@univ-montp2.fr)
2Email: terral@univ-montp2.fr
3Email: ivorra@univ-montp2.fr
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Extract

The authors examine a sample of olive stones from Egyptian contexts and show that from the first millennium BC, if not before, some of them relate to cultivars originating from the Levant. But equally prominent and just as early is another variety, of unknown origin and currently peculiar to Egypt. The method used is geometrical morphometric analysis – essentially classifying the olive stones by their shape.

Keywords

EgyptPersian periodRoman periodolive cultivationirrigationqanat

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Type
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Antiquity , Volume 80 , Issue 308 , 1 June 2006 , pp. 405 - 414
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2006

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