Croats have been eating olives for at least 3,500 years

Archaeologists from Zadar have found evidence of olive tree cultivation from 3500 years ago. The discovery is the oldest evidence of olives as part of people's diets on the Croatian side of the Adriatic sea.



The evidence was found remarkably well preserved, under the sea, between the islands of Ričul in the Pašman channel and the mainland holiday resort of Turanj. The amount of olive stones found indicate that olives were a regular and cultivated part of the diet of those living in the region. Some of the stones have been sent for testing to establish the exact species and if that species still exists within the region of Dalmatia where they were found.