Since ancient times cretan olive oil has been a major nutrition fact in cretan people's diet. It is about olive oil produced in crete, whis is considered to be of the utmost quality. Cretan economy is heavily dependant on olive oil and its production .
The olive was believed to have first made its appearance in the third millenium BC in the Middle East and consequent ly spread throughout the Aegean Islands, Greece and other Mediterran ean regions. The first inhabitant s of Crete, is considered that, besides other crops, they occasional ly collected and ate the fruit of the wild olive tree (Olea oleaster), from as far back as the Neolithic Period (6000-3000 BC). Later on, during the 3rd millennium B.C, the inhabitant s of Crete start the cultivatio n of the olive-tree and during the 2nd millennium proceed to its systematic exploitati on.
On Minoan Crete, after 2000 BC, the olive assumes prominence in the royal economy of Knossos and is later passed on to the economy and life of Mycenaean Greece. There was a great number of uses for olive oil in Minoan Crete. It was used either fragranced or not for cosmetic purposes, for religious ceremonies , as a body ointment, as a therapeuti c substance, as a lubricant and as fuel for lamps. Ideogramms depicting the olive tree, its crop and olive oil found in Linear A and B tablets, consist the evidence for Minoan's occupation with the olive tree and its produce, from 1800 BC. Wall- paintings, tools, installati ons and inscriptio ns serve as proof of the importance placed by the Minoans on the production , storage and merchandis ing of olive oil as far back as 1700 BC.
A bowl of olives (1450 BC) found in a well in the palace of Zakros, Eastern Crete, shows that Cretans of the Minoan Period included olives in their diet. In the following centuries, between 700 - 400 B.C, the olive and the olive-oil acquired a special importance all over Greece. Philosophe rs Anaxagoras and Empedocles investigat e the history of olive, Aristotele s describes its cultivatio n, Solon legislates its protection and Platon teaches in its shade.


Today more than 90% of the olive oil produced in Crete is of the higher classifica tion of 'extra virgin' .Greece is full of olive groves. The Olive Tree, is the protagonis t of the Greek nature and history as olive oil is the protagonis t of the Greek diet.
The indigenous olive tree first appeared in the eastern Mediterran ean but it was in Greece that it was first cultivated . Since then, the presence of the olive tree in the Greek region has been uninterrup ted and closely connected with the traditions and the culture of the Greek people.

Olive oil, as it is testified by the fossilized olive trees which are 50,000-60,000 thousand years old and were found in the volcanic rocks of Santorini, has always been a distinctiv e element of the country. Its systematic cultivatio n started in the pre- historic times - the Stone and Bronze Age.

Olive oil production held a prominent position in the Cretan Minoan and the Mycenaean society and economy as it shown by excavation s and findings (earthenwa re jars, recordings on tablets, remains of oil mills). During the Minoan Period, olives were treated and oil was produced which in turn was stored in earthenwar e jars and amphorae. Quite often it was exported to the Aegean islands and mainland Greece. Apart from the financial gains, though, the olive tree was worshipped as sacred and its oil, besides being offered to the Gods and the dead, was also used in the production of perfumes, medicine and in daily life as a basic product in diet, lighting and heating.