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Ancient Cypriots fed olive oil to furnaces-study
"We know that olive oil made it into our food around 1,000 BC, but it is the first time we have laboratory evidence that it was used in smelting as a fuel."
"It is the first time this has been discovered ... and in Europe it�s only recently that industry has turned to biofuels. This oil burns like benzene."
- Maria Rosaria Belgiorno, archaeologist
"It is the first time this has been discovered ... and in Europe it�s only recently that industry has turned to biofuels. This oil burns like benzene."
- Maria Rosaria Belgiorno, archaeologist
Pyrgos, Cyprus - It is praised for its culinary and health properties by any cook worth his salt, but long before olive oil made it into the Mediterranean diet Cypriots used it as fuel to melt copper, archaeologists say.
Italian researchers have discovered that environmentally friendly olive oil was used in furnaces at a site in southern Cyprus up to 4,000 years ago, instead of the fume-belching charcoal used in industry for hundreds of years since.