Archaeology of wine and oil in the Roman Empire

All the Mediterranean provinces of the Roman Empire produced wine and oil. In the first century BC, Italy was the main supplier of wine to the West, then Spain and Gaul took dominated one after another wine production in the western Mediterranean basin, while the wines of Crete, the Greek islands, Egypt and Asia Minor maintained their traditional positions in the East. The oil, produced everywhere, found its home in southern Spain, Tripolitania, then in Africa (Tunisia) and Mauritania (Algeria-Morocco). Archaeology has revealed hundreds of Roman farms specialised in the production of wine and oil. The study of these sites has revealed new aspects of the economic and social history of a time when these were the two fundamental products of the Mediterranean civilisation.