While Greeks and afterwards Romans propagated the cultivation of olive trees in the Northern Mediterranean coasts, Phoenicians, who founded Carthage in present Tunisia , developed the olive tree in the South, from Libya and Tunisia to Algeria , Morocco and Spain .

The olive tree eventually expanded toward the West. However, most sources agree that the cultivated olive tree originated in Asia Minor, between present Syria and Iran , around the year 6000 B.C. Other sources date the olive tree back 7000 years B.C. to the Neolithic period.