"Beside the Hallowed Olive Tree: The Greeks and the Early History of Olive Oil"
By Dr. Anthony F. Buccini – University of Chicago Researcher

May 24, 2007 at Hellenic Museum in Greektown at 6:00pm

The Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center is proud to present Dr. Anthony F. Buccini on May 24, 2007, who will speak about the history of olive oil cultivation in Greece and its ultimate spread to the rest of the Mediterranean.

The lecture coincides with the Museum’s current exhibition entitled ‘Nourishing Culture,’ which shows how food played an important role in the story of Greek immigration to Chicago and the evolution of Greek American culture.

While the question of who first cultivated the olive tree will probably never be resolved with certainty, there is no doubt that the people of Crete, the Greek mainland and islands played an especially central role in the early development of oleiculture (the production, processing, and marketing of olives) and were also responsible for its diffusion to Italy and points further west along the Mediterranean coast of Europe.

Dr. Buccini, who is a research associate at the University of Chicago, will outline the Greek place in the early history of oleicutlure and focus on a few of its most important aspects.

Dr. Anthony F. Buccini received his undergraduate education at Columbia University in New York (B.A.) and his graduate education at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. (Ph.D.); he also studied and later conducted research as a Fulbright Scholar at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.

He has published and taught extensively in his primary fields of historical linguistics and sociolinguistics, especially in connection with the Germanic, Romance and Celtic languages. He has researched and written on topics both in linguistics and in the field of culinary history. He was awarded the Sophie Coe Prize in food history for 2005.

The lecture will take place on May 24, 2007at 6:00pm at the Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center, 801 W. Adams (4th floor) in Greektown. Admission to the lecture is $5 for members; $10 for non-members. For additional information please call the Hellenic Museum at 312-655-1234.