The Impact of Olive Orchard Abandonment and Rehabilitation on Pollen Signature: An experimental approach to evaluating fossil pollen data. Langgut et al. 2014. ETHNOARCHAEOLOGY

The Impact of Olive Orchard

Abandonment and Rehabilitation on

Pollen Signature: An Experimental

Approach to Evaluating Fossil Pollen

Data

Dafna Langgut

The Laboratory for Archaeobotany and Ancient Environments, the Soniaand Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, P.O. Box39040, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel

Simcha Lev-Yadun

Department of Biology and Environment, Faculty of Natural Sciences,University of Haifa - Oranim, Tivon 36006, Israel

Israel Finkelstein

The Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University,P.O. Box 39040, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel

For millennia the olive was an important cultivated tree in the southern

Levant, as evidenced by numerous archaeological finds and Holocene pollenassemblages. However, the impact of abandonment and rehabilitation of

olive orchards (a recurrent historical process) on the fossil pollen record hasnot been studied. We documented quantitative differences in the olive pollensignature in a well-managed traditional olive orchard, an abandoned orchard,

and an orchard rehabilitated after decades of abandonment, establishing thebiological basis for understanding the olive pollen signature. The results

indicate a strong decline in flowering and pollen production for decadesfollowing the cessation of cultivation and a rapid increase following

rehabilitation. This strong response suggests that the fossil pollen curvesare a reliable marker for determining the extent of olive oil production in

ancient times. In terms of agricultural/economic efficiency, rehabilitation ofan orchard takes much less time than establishing a new orchard. This could

ethnoarchaeology, Vol. 6 No. 2, October, 2014, 121–135

� W. S. Maney & Son Ltd 2014 DOI 10.1179/1944289014Z.00000000016

have been one of the reasons why the same sites were reoccupied during

peaks of settlement activity in antiquity. The recent field results are

compared to fossil pollen data from the Sea of Galilee during the Bronze

and Iron Ages.

keywords Olive pollen, Olea europaea, olive domestication, olive orchard,

orchards abandonment, pollen signature, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Levant

The olive (Olea europaea) was one of the first domesticated plant species in the

Old World (Zohary et al. 2012). It was the most prominent, and probably the

most economically important fruit tree in the Mediterranean basin. The wild olive

(Olea europaea var. oleaster) occurs widely in the eastern Mediterranean region

(Zohary 1973), is considered part of the ancient Levantine natural flora, and is

encountered in Pleistocene fossil pollen diagrams (Horowitz 1979; Kadosh et al.

2004; Langgut et al. 2011; van-Zeist and Bottema 2009; Weinstein-Evron 1983).

Remains of olive branches and olive pits, considered to represent olive gathering

from the wild, have been found in both Lower and Upper Paleolithic sites (e.g.,

Goren-Inbar et al. 2002; Kislev et al. 1992; Weiss et al. 2008).

Wild and domestic olive pollen grains are palynologically indistinguishable,1 but

while the first evidence of olive oil production dates to the Late Neolithic to Early

Chalcolithic from submerged sites along the Carmel coast (Galili et al. 1997),

significant cultivation of olives most probably began in the Late Chalcolithic, some

six millennia ago, when much higher olive pollen values are documented in several

Levantine pollen spectra (Baruch 1990; Litt et al. 2012; van-Zeist et al. 2009). The

dramatic rise in Olea pollen is considered to reflect the spread of olive cultivation

in the region (e.g., Baruch and Bottema 1999; Cappers et al. 1998). The

palynological evidence is supported by archaeological findings of olive oil

extraction facilities and crushed olive pits at Chalcolithic sites in Samaria (Eitam

1993), the Jordan Valley (Gophna and Kislev 1979; Neef 1990) and the Golan

Heights (Epstein 1978, 1993, 1998). Since the Early Bronze Age, the existence of

large-scale olive orchards is evident from both archaeological finds (Neef 1990;

Finkelstein and Gophna 1993; Frankel et al. 1994; Frankel 1999) and

palynological data (Baruch 1990; Langgut et al. 2013a, 2013b; Litt et al. 2012;

Neumann et al. 2007a, 2007b; van-Zeist et al. 2009).

Early south Levantine pollen studies sampled pollen in sediment cores at

intervals of several hundred years (e.g., Baruch 1986, 1990; Horowitz 1979;

Langgut et al. 2011; Litt et al. 2012; Weinstein-Evron 1983). Now that the general

palynological picture has emerged, a more precise archaeological resolution should

be sought. Several recent palynological cores and outcrops from the area have been

1 Today, wild olive trees are very rare in Israel. Most of the olives that grow in natural habitats are feral. We sampled a

wild olive population located on the Carmiya range on Mount Carmel. Results of pollen grain ornamentation and size

measurements (with the use of the software of ImageJ) showed no distinct differences in pollen surface ornamentation

between wild and domesticated taxa. Only minor differences in average pollen size based on length and width

measurements were documented, which unfortunately are not sufficiently pronounced. Further research on this wild

population is impossible today since it was burnt during the conflagration on Mount Carmel in December 2010.

122 DAFNA LANGGUT et al.

sampled at intervals as small as a few decades and up to 100 years (Langgut et al.

2013b; Langgut et al. 2014; Neumann et al. 2007a; Neumann et al. 2010 and

references therein). The aim of these studies is to try to identify short-term

vegetation changes related to either climatic fluctuations or human activities such

as expansion of agriculture, grazing, and settlement fluctuations.

There is a good theoretical basis for interpreting the olive pollen curves

generated from such temporally more detailed studies as markers for such changes

because Olea, a predominantly wind-pollinated species, releases large amounts of

pollen to the atmosphere and is therefore well-represented in the pollen spectrum

(e.g., Baruch 1993), and like many other typical evergreen Mediterranean trees

grown without irrigation or without collection of runoff water, Olea orchards

require at least 400 mm of annual rainfall. Therefore, fluctuations in the olive

pollen curve can provide information on both climate and human activities,

especially in the climate-sensitive parts of the southern Levant located on the fringe

of the Mediterranean zone.

These high-resolution palynological records yield dramatic olive pollen curve

fluctuations. In relation to the possibility of identifying non-climatic expansion

and shrinkage of olive horticulture, the palynological record could be misleading if

abandoned orchards continue to produce pollen at the same level as during their

cultivation years. This potential confounding variable for deciphering pollen

diagrams, which had not previously been investigated, is the aim of the current

study. We therefore documented the number of flowers produced by olive trees in a

well-managed traditional rain-watered orchard, an abandoned orchard, and an

orchard that was rehabilitated after decades of abandonment. The Near East

witnessed a significant number of settlement oscillations during the ca. six

millennia of established olive culture (e.g., Finkelstein 1995; Marfoe 1979; Ofer

1994; Zertal 1994), oscillations that were probably accompanied by changes in

olive cultivation. Understanding the palynological aspects of changes in olive-

orchard management will allow a better interpretation of the palynological

diagrams and a more nuanced study of their historical implications. To that end,

the experimental insights concerning olive pollen yield in the three different

orchard types were applied to a palynological case study from the Bronze and Iron

Ages of the Sea of Galilee.

Olive’s natural characteristics and nurtureOlives are relatively slow-growing and long-lived fruit trees with significant

production starting only five to six years after planting and reaching the best crops

many years later, when the trees become large. If well managed, olive trees can

keep fruiting for over a century (Zinger 1985; Zohary et al. 2012). Olive orchards

produce a large crop one year and small crops in alternate years (Lavee 1989,

2007). Olive is mainly a wind-pollinated species and therefore it releases large

amounts of pollen to the atmosphere in the spring (March–May) to compensate

for the low pollination efficiency that characterizes wind-pollinated trees.

Estimates of pollen production and pollen release into the atmosphere in various

Olea types are available, but these studies have focused on environmental and

health perspectives such as allergy (Cuevas and Polito 2004; Damialis et al. 2011;

EVALUATING FOSSIL POLLEN DATA 123

Ferrara et al. 2007; Tormo-Molina et al. 1996) rather than on archaeological/cultural issues.

The yellowish-white olive flowers are organized in inflorescences (Zinger 1985).

Only one to three flowers per inflorescence usually set fruits (Lavee 2007). Theflowers and fruits grow only on branches that developed during the previous year.

Pruning of branches during and after fruit harvest is common and important since

it helps moderate the alternate year bearing, keeps the trees at a height that allowseasy harvest, and increases the fruit yield. Increasing yield following branch

pruning that induces new branch formation occurs because olive trees never bear

fruit on the same branch twice (Zinger 1985).

Material and methods

A preliminary field survey of traditionally-managed rain-fed olive orchards was

conducted in the Galilee, Mount Carmel, Samaria Highlands, and the Judean

Highlands from 1994 to 2009 in order to determine the repertoire of traditionalmanagement (Figure 1). It became clear from the survey that there is a distinct

shift between three types of olive orchard maintenance: (1) regularly cultivated

traditional orchards, (2) abandoned orchards, and (3) orchards rehabilitated afterdecades of abandonment. Orchards of these three types sharing similar ecology,

topography, and climatic conditions2 were chosen for this study. All are on

Rendzina soils, at altitudes between 100 and 135 m above sea level, receiving 600–700 mm average yearly precipitation. Minimum daily temperatures (January) are

7–9 degrees Celsius, and maximums (July) are 32–34 degrees (Shahar and Sofer

2011). All the orchards are approximately 80 years old, and they are (or were)managed using only traditional cultivation methods. They are planted only with

Nabali olives, a local traditional variety usually used for oil extraction and pickled

for green table olives (Zinger 1985).An estimate of floral unit production in these three orchard types was required

in order to represent pollen production. This estimate was achieved by counting

the number of inflorescences and flowers in one part of the tree’s canopy. Theportion of the sampled canopy sector out of the entire canopy was then estimated.

Five trees from each of the three orchards chosen for this study were sampled. The

same individual trees were studied during both years. Because of the strongalternate year bearing phenomenon in olive trees, sampling was conducted during

the flowering season over two consecutive years (2010 and 2011) in order to arrive

at reliable average flowering which is a proxy for pollen production. The samemethod was used to estimate the fruit yield per tree at the abandoned orchard,

while at the rehabilitated and well-managed orchards fruit yield was reported to us

by the growers (Mr. Amos Straus of Ramot Menashe and Mr. Bader Mouassi ofBaqa al Gharbiyye, respectively). From the average number of flowers and fruit

harvest we could also calculate the fruit/flower ratio. In addition, we took size

2 Aguilera and Valenzuela (2012) showed that olive trees tend to increase their pollen production rate as altitude

increases (probably as a reproductive strategy to ensure fertilization). Flowering and pollen production are also

influenced by meteorological and other environmental factors (e.g. Galan et al. 2004; Ribeiro et al. 2006). We

therefore conducted our research in orchards which share similar ecology, altitude, and climatic conditions.


figure 1 a. The position of the southern Levant. b. Location of the three orchards: 1) Abandoned

orchard, 2) Rehabilitated orchard, and 3) Well-managed orchard, together with other locations

mentioned in the text.


measurements (tree height and trunk circumference at 1.4 m height) of the 15

selected trees.

Main characteristics of the investigated orchards

1. Abandoned orchard: This orchard is located at Ramot Menashe Park, a

biospheric nature reserve on the southeastern slopes of Mount Carmel

(32u6301’N and 35u1282’E). It was planted during the 1930s and

abandoned in 1952. Today the olive trees are largely covered by climbers

such as Rough Bindweed (Smilax aspera). Some of the olive trees are also

shaded by the canopy of younger but taller trees such as Aleppo pine (Pinus

halepensis) which established themselves in the orchard (Figure 2a).

2. Abandoned orchard that was rehabilitated: This orchard is located 200 m

south of the abandoned orchard. It too had been abandoned in 1952, but it

was rehabilitated in 1996. Rehabilitation included removal of all climbers

and trees other than olives (Figure 2b). This was accomplished by hand

without the use of heavy machines. Grazing cattle and sheep were used to

clear the area of herbs and shrubs. This is considered an ecological olive

orchard and hence there is no use of modern methods such as chemical pest

control and chemical pollination enhancement; the orchard is rain-watered

only. In 2010–2011 all the trees were pruned during Winter and herbs were

cleared by cattle and sheep grazing during Spring in both study years.

figure 2 a. An olive tree at the abandoned orchard, Ramot Menashe. b. An olive tree at the

rehabilitated orchard at Ramot Menashe Park. Photos by D. Langgut.


3. Traditional orchard, continuously maintained: This orchard is located in the

village of Baqa al Gharbiyye (32u4198’N, 35u0447’E). Modern cultivation

methods were never in use in this orchard and it is rain-watered. The

cultivated area is cleared manually of herbs, shrubs, and climbers. This

orchard served as our control. Herbs were cleared manually in both study

years and part of the canopy of Tree 12 was pruned during the winter of

2010.

Results

Recent data setThe numbers of inflorescences, flowers per branch on a tree, fruit yield per tree and

size measurements (tree height in meters and trunk circumference) are given in

Table 1. Based on the data presented there, the following parameters were

calculated per orchard: average number of inflorescences, average number of

flowers in inflorescences, average number of flowers on a tree with their standard

deviation, average fruit yield per tree and averages concerning tree size. All average

calculations are given in Table 2.

Biennial bearing

In most cases, both the abandoned orchard (Trees 1–5) and the control orchard

(Trees 11–15) yielded higher values of flowers and inflorescences during the first

year of the study in comparison to the second year (2010 and 2011 respectively in

Tables 1 and 2). For example, the average number of flowers per tree in 2010 was

more than 6 times greater than in 2011 in the abandoned orchard and 4.5 times

greater in the control orchard respectively (Table 2). This finding reflects the well-

known alternate bearing phenomenon in olive trees—2010 was an ‘‘on’’ year

while 2011 was an ‘‘off’’ year. Less pronounced differences between these two

consecutive years were found for the rehabilitated orchard (Trees 6–10; Table 1).

This was achieved by drastic branch pruning which helped in regulating the

alternate bearing phenomenon. One exception occurred for Tree 12 in the control

orchard, where the average number of flowers on the tree appears to be similarboth years (Table 2), probably because of branch pruning. Note that Tree 12 was

the only tree pruned in the control orchard. Alternate bearing is clearly reflected

also in the average fruit yield per tree in the rehabilitated and control orchards. At

the abandoned orchard there is data only for 2010.

Orchard maintenance

Floral unit production shows notable differences between the three orchard types

in both years of the study (Table 1). The average number of flowers on a tree in the

rehabilitated orchard was more than five times greater than in the abandonedorchard during the ‘‘on’’ year and more than 15 times greater during the ‘‘off’’

year, whereas the number of flowers for the orchard that was continuously

maintained was more than 44 times greater than that for the abandoned orchard in

2010 and 68 times greater in 2011. Average fruit yield per tree also decreases

tremendously following orchard abandonment. For example in 2011 fruit yield at


TAB

LE1

NU

MB

ER

OF

INFL

OR

ES

CE

NC

ES

,FL

OW

ER

S,

FRU

ITY

IELD

,A

ND

SIZ

EM

EA

SU

RE

ME

NTS

INTH

ETH

RE

EO

RC

HA

RD

S

Aban

done

dor

char

dRe

habi

litat

edor

char

dCo

ntro

lorc

hard

Tree

no.

12

34

56

78

910

1112

1314

15

Aver

age

num

ber

ofin

flore

scen

ces

per

bran

ch20

109

87

225

1813

1611

924

1826

2421

Aver

age

num

ber

offlo

wer

sin

inflo

resc

ence

s22

508

2514

3447

4031

4078

8383

8087

Aver

age

num

ber

offlo

wer

son

atre

e10

,584

15,5

128,

624

70,12

72,

872

81,2

0015

8,05

020

6,52

054

,340

78,4

981,2

25,9

0854

4,60

080

9,60

094

3,54

01,2

64,12

0

Aver

age

num

ber

ofin

flore

scen

ces

per

bran

ch20

115

84

92

3410

2735

1023

3024

1820

Aver

age

num

ber

offlo

wer

sin

inflo

resc

ence

s12

187

288

5727

4241

1933

6810

317

41

Aver

age

num

ber

offlo

wer

son

atre

e2,

625

2,87

41,1

209,

007

182

76,8

0923

,408

69,4

2052

,850

23,0

6040

1,400

459,

000

100,

080

33,7

7085

,118

*Fru

ittre

eyi

eld

inkg

0.3

0.2

0.2

0.7

0.4

Tree

heig

ht(m

)4.

13.

94.

36

4.3

4.5

5.5

5.5

4.9

5.8

4.5

4.6

5.4

4.9

4.1

Trun

kCi

rcum

fere

nce

(m)

0.7

0.8

1.20.

90.

81.5

1.61.4

1.51.8

2.9

2.2

2.5

1.63.

2

*Fr

uit

tre

eyi

eld

for

the

reh

ab

ilit

ate

da

nd

con

tro

lo

rch

ard

sw

as

rep

ort

ed

by

the

gro

we

rsa

nd

sum

ma

rize

din

Tab

le2

.


the control orchard was 1.3 times greater than in the rehabilitated orchard and

91.7 times greater than in the abandoned one. The decline in growth of the olive

trees following orchard abandonment, as expressed in average trunk circumfer-

ence (Table 2) is also noteworthy.

Discussion

The botanical perspectiveBecauseof thecommonphenomenonofalternatebearing inolives,wecomparedthepollen

production during two sequential years. This allowed us to arrive at the average annual

pollen production; we wanted the two-year average since geological and archaeological

sediments reflect multiannual averages of ‘‘on’’ and ‘‘off’’ years. During ‘‘on’’ years, higher

amounts of olive pollen are released into the atmosphere. The differences in floral unit

production between 2010 and 2011 in the pruned trees we studied (Trees 6–10 and 12)

were relatively smaller in comparison to the trees that were not pruned.

Our results point to a striking phenomenon: after ca. 60 years (1952–2011) of

orchard abandonment, the average flower production in the ‘‘on’’ year in the

abandoned olive orchard was more than 40 times lower than in the orchard that

had been continuously maintained. This difference is even more pronounced

during the ‘‘off’’ year (2011) and is also reflected in the sharp decline (two orders

of magnitude) in fruit yield. In view of the fact that our sampling was done after

only 60 years of abandonment and not during all these 60 years, the annual or

decadal rate of decline of olive pollen production after orchard abandonment is

not known. Theoretically, it is possible to trace changes in tree growth and

TABLE 2

TOTAL AVERAGES OF FLORAL ORGAN NUMBERS, OLIVE YIELD, AND TREE SIZE MEASUREMENTS IN THETHREE STUDIED ORCHARDS

Abandonedorchard

Rehabilitatedorchard

Controlorchard

Average number of inflorescences on a branch 2010 10 13 23

Average number of flowers in inflorescences 24 38 82

Average number of flowers on a tree (¡SE) 21,544 ¡ 27,533 115,722 ¡ 63,994 957,554 ¡ 299,422

Average fruit yield of a tree in kg 35 60

The number of flowers per kg olive crop 3,306 15,959

Average number of inflorescences on a branch 2011 10 23 23

Average number of flowers in inflorescences 15 37 33

Average number of flowers on a tree (¡SE) 3,162 ¡ 3,449 49,110 ¡ 25,164 215,874 ¡ 198,241

Average fruit yield of a tree in kg 0.36 25 33

The number of flowers per kg olive crop 8,783 1,964 6,541

Average number of flowers on a tree 2010 & 2011 12, 353 82,416 586,714

Average fruit yield of a tree in kg 30 46.5

Average tree height (m) 4.5 5.2 4.7

Average trunk circumference (m) 0.9 1.6 2.5


productivity by examination of annual growth-rings. However, in mature olive

trees the growth-rings are not sufficiently clear, are not always annual (Cherubini

et al. 2013), and the wood is not produced evenly throughout the circumference. In

addition, the development of invading trees and climbers that compete with the

olive trees causes further productivity decline at the abandoned orchard.

Another important finding is that abandoned olive orchards have the ability to

rehabilitate very quickly in terms of flower and fruit production, which in a short

time can lead to substantial olive crop and oil production. We studied an orchard

that had not been maintained for more than 40 years (1952–1996). Fifteen years

after rehabilitation, the flower yield was dramatically higher than in the nearby

abandoned olive orchard during both 2010 and 2011 (more than 5 and 15 fold

respectively) and fruit production in the ‘‘off’’ year was 69 times higher. The

rehabilitation included relatively simple techniques, mainly clearing the orchard of

all climbers, trees, shrubs, and herbs, both manually and by grazing animals. In

addition, in order to facilitate fruit growth, pruning was performed, since olive

flowers and fruits are formed only on young branches developed during the previous

year. According to the grower, there was a relatively good yield in the year

immediately after starting the rehabilitation (A. Straus, personal communication).

Palynological and archaeological implicationsOur findings concerning pollen production following abandonment and rehabi-

litation of traditional olive orchards as compared to orchards continuously

cultivated reflect on the interpretation of olive pollen curves for proto-historical

and historical periods when mostly cultivated olives rather than wild ones were

prevalent. Archaeological surveys have pointed to sharp settlement oscillations in

the Levant (Finkelstein 1995; Marfoe 1979; Ofer 1994; Zertal 1994), which

included expansion to and withdrawal from areas suitable for olive horticulture as

evidenced by current traditional olive orchard occurrence. One characteristic of

these oscillations is sites that were settled time and again in periods characterized

by waves of settlement, and abandoned in periods of decline (Finkelstein et al.

2000; Zertal 2004). Our botanical findings demonstrate the possibility that at least

following short settlement crises, settlers could have preferred to resettle areas and

sites where olive orchards had already been established in previous times and just

needed rehabilitation. Our findings point to the relatively short and easy

rehabilitation process required in order to rapidly resume significant productivity

in an unmaintained olive orchard. Keeping in mind the great economic importance

of olive oil for both local consumption and commerce, the ability to easily

rehabilitate abandoned olive orchards must have been an important factor in the

decision to reoccupy abandoned settlements, even recognizing other factors such

as proximity to water sources, remains of buildings that could easily be rebuilt, the

location of arable fields, and so on.

Our finding in the unmaintained orchard in this study, regarding the pronounced

decrease in flower and fruit production after about 60 years which should result in

dramatic reductions in the amount of pollen released into the atmosphere, is of

significance for the interpretation of pollen diagrams. It points to a direct and strong

response of the olive pollen curves to either long-term cessation in human cultivation


or to orchard rehabilitation. Therefore, it is clear that olive pollen curves are

sufficiently sensitive and have the potential to identify changes in regional agricultural

activities and to reflect the extent of olive oil production in antiquity. The botanical

finds of this study provide a biological foundation for a better understanding of

Levantine and probably other Mediterranean palynological sequences.

The Sea of Galilee palynological recordIn the section below, the insights concerning pollen yield which emerged from this

study are examined on a palynological case study from the Sea of Galilee3

(Figure 3). This fossil record is discussed in detail elsewhere (Langgut et al.2013b); here we will only refer to its olive pollen curve. The pollen evidence

indicates that the driest event throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages occurred

around ~1250–1100 BCE—at the end of the Late Bronze Age. This arid phase was

identified based on a pronounced decrease in Mediterranean tree values: the

arboreal pollen percentages reaching a minimum of 14.2–13.1%. These low values

also include low olive pollen percentages (1.8%), denoting a reduction in

precipitation and the shrinking of the Mediterranean forest/maquis.

The most dramatic change in the olive pollen curve occurred during the Early

Bronze Age. The Early Bronze Age IB (~3,150–3,000 BCE) is characterized by the

highest percentages of arboreal vegetation in the sequence (up to 59.5%) and the

highest frequencies of olives (reaching a maximum of 50.2% of the total pollen

sum). The intense Olea frequencies represent the development of a specialized

economy focused on olive trees and their secondary products in the Sea of Galilee

area. A striking decline in the values of olive trees (4.4–13.8%) occurred in the

Early Bronze II–III (~3,000–2,500 BCE). This dramatic decrease is probably linked

to changes in geo-political and trade conditions in the region, rather than climate

change, since the other arboreal pollen percentages are still relatively high.

The sharp decline in the percentage of olive pollen around 3,000–2,950 BCE,

which represents the strong reduction of olive pollen production following the

probable cessation of regular orchard cultivation, lasted probably less than five

decades (pollen sampling interval between one sample to another was ~40 years).

This means that the response of the olive pollen yield to the orchard abandonment

was relatively quick. This information is also supported by the field data from this

study, which showed that the dramatic decline of olive flowering and pollen

production took place in a span of less than six decades (1952–2011).

The decrease in olive percentages lasted for a relatively long period—from the

beginning of Early Bronze II till the beginning of Iron Age I (~3,000–1,150 BCE),

indicating a limited spread of olive horticulture, most probably representing olive

production for local consumption (Langgut et al. 2013b). The rapid change in

olive pollen frequencies from the minimum of the Late Bronze Age values (1.8%)

to the Iron Age I high values (up to 28.7%) suggests that settlers probably

preferred to reoccupy areas and sites where olive orchards had already been

established in previous times and only needed rehabilitation.

3 For pollen identification a reference collection of Israel pollen flora was used (Steinhardt Museum of Natural

History, Tel Aviv University) as well as regional pollen atlases.


Conclusions

1. Olive pollen curves are reliable for identifying agricultural activities and

determining the extent of olive oil production in the Levant. This is so

because of the strong response in flowering and fruit crop of olive orchards

to both the cessation and resumption of orchard cultivation, resulting in

dramatic fluctuations in pollen production following abandonment or

rehabilitation of olive orchards.

figure 3 Palynological record from the Sea of Galilee. The pollen diagram comprises the

group of Mediterranean trees and cultivated olives versus herbs and dwarf-shrubs,

representing Arboreal Pollen/Non-Arboreal Pollen (AP/NAP) ratios. Cultivated olive trees

(yellow curve) were combined with the group of wild Mediterranean trees (green curve) since

they occupy the same ecological niches (Baruch 1986; Horowitz 1979). The dominant trees

are evergreen and deciduous oaks (Quercus calliprinos type and Quercus ithaburensis type,

respectively). Other Mediterranean trees appear in lower percentages: Phillyrea, Pistacia

spp., Pinus halepensis (Aleppo pine) and Ceratonia siliqua (carob tree).

The herbs and dwarf-shrubs (the non-arboreal group) are presented in the diagram as a mirror image to

the arboreal group and therefore increase as percentages of the Mediterranean trees decline. The

dominant plant taxa within this group are Poaceae (wild grasses), Cerealia pollen type (Cereals),

Asteraceae (daisy family), Chenopodiaceae (goosefoot family), Artemisia (wormwood) and Brassicaceae

(cabbage family).; All lake bank tree and shrub taxa (hydrophilous plants) and aquatic plants were

excluded from the total pollen sum (APzNAP5100%). In this diagram each pollen sample represents an

average of several years and therefore it includes a number of ‘‘on’’ and ‘‘off’’ years.


2. There is a clear advantage in rehabilitation of abandoned olive orchards interms of agricultural efficiency. A relatively short and technically easy

rehabilitation process for an unmaintained orchard leads almost immedi-

ately to a substantially larger olive crop. The many years required forestablishing new, mature fruiting orchards are thus waived. This could have

been one of the reasons why the same sites were reoccupied during peaks ofsettlement activity in antiquity. In other words, this probably indicates the

preference to resettle areas/sites next to abandoned olive orchards.

3. Alternate bearing in olives is clearly expressed by the numbers of flowers andinflorescences, meaning that during ‘‘off’’ years notably less olive pollen is

released to the atmosphere. This should be taken into consideration in

palynological studies that are performed on annually laminated sediments.Pruning as a horticultural practice has a dramatic influence on balancing and

controlling the alternate bearing phenomenon.

Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the European Research Council under the European

Community’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007–2013)/ERC grant agree-ment no. 229418. We thank Mr. A. Straus of Ramot Menashe Park and Mr. B.Mouassi of Baqa al Gharbiyye for their permission to conduct our research in their

orchards. We would also like to acknowledge S. Ben-Dor Evian and M. Pollak for

their technical help and especially T. Langgut for all his assistance in the field. M.Stein from the Israel Geological Survey and T. Litt and his team from the Bonn

Palynological Laboratory are gratefully thanked for their help in the extraction of

the Sea of Galilee core.

References cited

Aguilera, Fatima, and Luis Ruiz Valenzuela. 2012. Microclimatic-induced fluctuations in the flower and

pollen production rate of olive trees (Olea europaea L.). Grana 51:228–239.

Baruch, Uri. 1986. The Late Holocene vegetational history of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Israel. Paleorient

12:37–48.

——. 1990. Palynological evidence of human impact on the vegetation as recorded in Late Holocene lake

sediments in Israel. In Man’s role in the shaping of the Eastern Mediterranean landscape, eds. Sytze

Bottema, Gertie Entjes-Nieborg, and Willem van-Zeist, 283–293. Rotterdam: Balkema.

——. 1993. The palynology of Late Quaternary sediments of the Dead Sea. Ph.D. diss., The Hebrew

University of Jerusalem (Hebrew with English abstract).

Baruch, Uri, and Sytze Bottema. 1999. A new pollen diagram from Lake Hula: Vegetation, climatic and

anthropogenic implications. In Ancient lakes: their cultural and biological diversity, eds. Hiroya Kawanabe,

George W. Coulter, and Anna C. Roosevelt, 75–86. Belgium: Kenobi.

Cappers, Rene T. J., Sytze Bottema, and Henk Woldring. 1998. Problems in correlating pollen diagrams of the

Near East: A preliminary report. In The origins of agriculture and crop domestication, eds. Ardeshar B.

Damania, Jan Valkoun, George Willcox, and Calvin O. Qualset, 160–169. Aleppo: International Center for

Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA).

Cherubini, Paolo, Turi Humbel, Hans Beeckman, Holger Gaertner, David Mannes, Charlotte Pearson, Werner

Schoch, Roberto Tognetti, and Lev-Yadun Simcha. 2013. Olive tree-ring problematic dating: A comparative

analysis on Santorini (Greece). PLoS ONE 8:33–45.


Cuevas, Julian, and Vito S. Polito. 2004. The role of staminate flowers in the breeding system of Olea

europaea (Oleaceae): An andromonoecious, wind-pollinated taxon. Annals of Botany 93:547–553.

Damialis, Athanasios, Christan Fotiou, John M. Halley, and Desponia Vokou. 2011. Effects of environmental

factors on pollen production in anemophilous woody species. Trees 25:253–264.

Eitam, David. 1993. ‘‘Between the [olive] rows, oil will be produced, presses will be trod …’’ (Job 24, 11). In

Oil and wine production in the Mediterranean area, eds. Marie-Claire Amouretti, Jean-Paul Brun, and

David Eitam, 65–90. Athens: Ecole Francaise d’Athenes.

Epstein, Claire. 1978. A new aspect of Chalcolithic culture. BASOR 229: http://www.jstor.org/action/

showPublicationInfo?journalCode5bullamerschoorie27–45.

——. 1993. Oil production in the Golan Heights during the Chalcolithic Period. Tel-Aviv 20:133–146.

——. 1998. The Chalcolithic culture of the Golan. IAA Report 4. Jerusalem: Israel Antiquity Authority.

Ferrara, Giuseppe, Salvatore Camposeo, Marino Palasciano, and Angelo Godini. 2007. Production of total

and stainable pollen grains in Olea europaea L. Grana 46:85–90.

Finkelstein, Israel. 1995. The great transformation: The ‘‘conquest’’ of the highlands frontiers and the rise of

the territorial states. In The archaeology of society in the Holy Land, ed. Thomas E. Levy, 349–365. New

York: Leicester.

Finkelstein, Israel, and Ram Gophna. 1993. Settlement, demographic, and economic patterns in the highlands

of Palestine in the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze periods and the beginning of urbanism. BASOR 289:1–22.

Finkelstein, Israel, Zvi Lederman, and Shlomo Bunimovitz. 2000. Highlands of many cultures: The Southern

Samaria survey, the sites. Monograph Series of the Institute of Archaeology Tel Aviv University (14). Tel

Aviv: Tel Aviv University.

Frankel, Rafael. 1999. Wine and oil production in antiquity in Israel and other Mediterranean countries.

Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.

Frankel, Rafael, Shmuel Avitsur, and Etan Ayalon. 1994. History and technology of olive oil in the Holy Land.

Tel Aviv: Erez Israel Museum.

Galan, Carmen, Luis Vazquez, Herminia Garcıa-Mozo, and Eugenio Domınguez. 2004. Forecasting olive

(Olea europaea) crop yield based on pollen emission. Field Crops Research 86:43–51.

Galili, Ehud, Daniel J. Stanley, Jacob Sharvit, and Mina Weinstein-Evron. 1997. Evidence for earliest olive-oil

production in submerged settlements off the Carmel coast, Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science 24:1141–

1150.

Gophna, Ram, and Mordechai, E. Kislev. 1979. ‘‘Tell Saf’’ (1977–1978). Review Biblique 86:112–114.

Goren-Inbar, Naama, EllaWerker and Craig S. Feibel. 2002. The Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov,

Israel. The wood assemblage. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

Horowitz, Aharon. 1979. The Quaternary of Israel. New York: Academic Press.

Kadosh, Dafna, Dorit Sivan, Haim Kutiel, and Mina Weinstein-Evron. 2004. A Late Quaternary

paleoenvironmental sequence from Dor, Carmel Coastal Plain, Israel. Palynology 28:143–157.

Kislev, E. Mordechai, Danny Nadel, and Israel Carmi. 1992. Epipalaeolithic (19,000 BP) cereal and fruit diet

at Ohalo II, Sea of Galilee, Israel. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 73:161–166.

Langgut, Dafna, Ahuva Almogi-Labin, Myriam Bar-Matthews, and Mina Weinstein-Evron. 2011. Vegetation

and climate changes in the South Eastern Mediterranean during the last glacial-interglacial cycle: new

marine pollen core evidence for the last 86 ka. Quaternary Science Review 30:3960–3972.

Langgut, Dafna, Yuval Gadot, Naomi Porat, and Oded Lipschits. 2013a. Fossil pollen reveals the secrets of

royal Persian garden at Ramat Rahel (Jerusalem). Palynology 37:115–129.

Langgut, Dafna, Israel Finkelstein, and Thomas Litt. 2013b. Climate and the Late Bronze collapse: new

evidence from the Southern Levant. Tel Aviv 40:149–175.

Langgut, Dafna, Frank H. Neumann, Mordechai Stein, Allon Wagner, Elisa J. Kagan, Elisabetta Boaretto, and

Israel Finkelstein. 2014. Dead Sea pollen record and history of human activity in the Judean Highlands

(Israel) in the Bronze and Iron Ages (~2500–500 BCE). Palynology 38 (2): in press.

Lavee, Shimon. 1989. Involvement of plant growth regulators and endogenous growth substances in the

control of alternate bearing. Acta Horticulture 239:311–322.

——. 2007. Biennial bearing in olive (Olea europaea). Annals and Magazine of Natural History 17:101–112.


Litt, Thomas, Christian Ohlwein, Frank H. Neumann, Andreas Hense, and Mordechai Stein. 2012. Holocene

climate variability in the Levant from the Dead Sea pollen record. Quaternary Science Reviews 49:95–105.

Marfoe, Leon. 1979. The integrative transformation: patterns of sociopolitical organization in Southern Syria.

BASOR 234:1–42.

Neef, Reinder. 1990. Development and environmental implications of olive culture: the evidence from Jordan.

In Man’s role in the shaping of the eastern Mediterranean landscape, eds. Sytze Bottema, Gertie Entjes-

Nieborg, and Willem van-Zeist, 295–306. Rotterdam: Balkema.

Neumann, Frank H., Elisa J. Kagan, Suzan A. G. Leroy, and Uri Baruch. 2010. Vegetation history and climate

fluctuations on a transect along the Dead Sea west shore and their impact on past societies over the last

3500 years. Journal of Arid Environments 74:756–764.

Neumann, Frank H., Christian Scholzel, Thomas Litt, Andreas Hense, and Mordechai Stein. 2007a. Holocene

vegetation and climate history of the northern Golan heights (Near East). Vegetation History and

Archaeobotany 16:329–346.

Neumann, Frank H., Elisa J. Kagan, Marcus J. Schwab, and Mordechai Stein. 2007b. Palynology, sedimentology

and palaeoecology of the late Holocene Dead Sea. Quaternary Science Reviews 26:1476–1498.

Ofer, Avi. 1994. ‘‘All the hill country of Judah’’: From a settlement fringe to a prosperous monarchy. In From

nomadism to monarchy: Archaeological and historical aspects of early Israel, eds. Israel Finkelstein and

Nadav Na’aman, 92–121. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

Ribeiro, Helena, Luis Santos, Ilda Abreu, and Mario Cunha. 2006. Influence of meteorological parameters on

Olea flowering date and airborne pollen concentration in four regions of Portugal. Grana 45:115–121.

Shahar, Arie, and Tamar Sofer. 2011. The new atlas of Israel – The national atlas. Jerusalem: Survey of Israel

and Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Tormo-Molina, Rafael, Adolfo Munoz Rodrıguez, Inmaculada S. Palacios, and Francisco Gallardo Lopez.

1996. Pollen production in anemophilous trees. Grana 35:38–46.

van-Zeist, Willem, and Sytze Bottema. 2009. A palynological study of the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot

Ya‘aqov, Israel. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 18:105–121.

van-Zeist, Willem, Uri Baruch, and Sytze Bottema. 2009. Holocene palaeoecology of the Hula area,

northeastern Israel. In A timeless vale, archaeological and related essays on the Jordan Valley, eds. Eva

Kaptijn and Lucas Petit, 29–64. Leiden: Archaeological Studies University Press.

Walanus, Adam, and Dorota Nalepka. 1999. POLPAL Program for counting pollen grains, diagrams plotting

and numerical analysis. Acta Palaeobotany Supplementary 2:659–661.

Weinstein-Evron, Mina. 1983. The paleoecology of the Early Wurm in the Hula Basin, Israel. Paleorient 9:5–19.

Weiss, Ehud, Mordechai E. Kislev, Orit Simchoni, Danny Nadel, and Hartmut Tschauner. 2008. Plant food

preparation area on an upper Paleolithic brush hut floor at Ohalo II, Israel. Journal of Archaeological

Science 35:2400–2414.

Zertal, Adam. 1994. To the lands of the Perizzites and the giants: On the Israelite settlement in the hill country

of Manasseh. In From nomadism to monarchy: Archaeological and historical aspects of early Israel, eds.

Israel Finkelstein and Nadav Na’aman, 47–69. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

——. 2004. The Manasseh Hill Country Survey (I). Boston: Brill.

——. 2008. The Manasseh Hill Country Survey (II). Boston: Brill.

Zinger, Avraham. 1985. Olive cultivation. Tel-Aviv: Ministry of Agriculture (Hebrew).

Zohary, Michael. 1962. Plant life of Palestine (Israel and Jordan). New York: Ronald Press.

——. 1973. Geobotanical foundations of the Middle East. Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer.

Zohary, Daniel, Maria Hopf, and Ehud Weiss. 2012. Domestication of plants in the Old World, 4th edition.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Notes on contributor

Correspondence to: Dr. Dafna Langgut. Email: [email protected]. Tel: 972-

544-234800. Fax: 972-36407237.


Documents

The Impact of Olive Orchard Abandonment and Rehabilitation on Pollen Signature: An experimental approach to evaluating fossil pollen data. Langgut et al. 2014. ETHNOARCHAEOLOGY