Resumen de Presence of "Olea europaea" and "Vitis vinifera" in archaeological sites from the Iberian Peninsula
The olive and the grape vine remains retrieved from archaeological excavations, show that they had been collected from the wild long before their cultivation in the Iberian Peninsula. The extension of the cultivation of the olive in the Western Mediterranean is normally seen as a feature of the Greek and Roman civilizations, although other arguments concerning the intentional cultivation of the tree in this region should not be excluded. Nevertheless, the situation in Spain is very controversial, on the one hand, is considered that the Phoenicians introduced the cultivated olive, and, on the other hand. the introduction of the cultivation of the olive was a late development linked to colonization by the Romans. Several hypotheses concerning the origins of viticulture in the Western Mediterranean are in agreement that it can only have been practised during the Iron Age, and that the Greek or Phoenician colonizations must have caused changes in the cultivation systems. Some theories concerning the possibility of an earlier production of wine or at least on a large scale) have been discovered recently in Cuesta del Negro (Granada), which is probably an indication of local use of the grape for consumption. Archaeobotanical data shows that the Greeks may have introduced the viticulture into Northeastern Spain through their colony at Empuries, whilst in the rest of the Peninsula a close connection is postulated between the presence of the Phoenicians and the beginnings of grape cultivation. The difficulties are to confirm local cultivation or importation of grapes from other areas of the Southern Mediterranean, there is till present no evidence to confirm the theory that grapes consumed by early Iron Age communities were originated from improved varieties of wild grape.
