TAMPA, FLORIDA—According to a Live Science report, 4,000-year-old olive oil has been detected in residues obtained from an egg-shaped ceramic pot unearthed at Castelluccio, an archaeological site in Sicily. The jar, which is decorated with rope bands and three vertical handles on each side, was discovered in hundreds of pieces in one of 12 huts on a rocky ridge at the site in the 1990s. The three-foot-tall jar was reconstructed by conservators at the Paolo Orsi Regional Archaeological Museum in Syracuse, Italy. Davide Tanasi of the University of South Florida and his colleagues said the new dates for the residues suggest olive oil was being systematically produced in Italy about 700 years earlier than previously thought. Two ceramic basins with internal dividers and a large terracotta cooking plate were also found at the site. To read about extensive evidence of olive oil use by Rome, go to “Trash Talk.”
