The Olive was a native to Asia Minor and spread from Iran, Syria and Palestine to the rest of the Mediterranean basin 6,000 years ago.  It is among the oldest known cultivated trees in the world - being grown before the written language was invented.   It was being grown on Crete by 3,000 BC and may have been the source of the wealth of the Minoan kingdom. 

The Phoenicians spread the olive to the Mediterranean shores of Africa and Southern Europe. Olives have been found in Egyptian tombs from 2000 years BC.  The olive culture was spread to the early Greeks then Romans.  As the Romans extended their domain they brought the olive with them. In more modern times the olive tree has continued to spread outside the Mediterranean and today is farmed in places as far removed from its origins as southern Africa, Australia, Japan and China. As Duhamel said, "The Mediterranean ends where the olive tree no longer grows", which can be capped by saying that "There where the sun permits, the olive tree takes root and gains ground".