Research Notes
The book asks a large question. The public research usually begins with a smaller one.
How did the first olive trees reach Peru?
Why is the characteristic Peruvian olive black?
What was El Olivar before it became a park?
Was Spain actually part of the Seven Countries Study?
Research Notes are source-led answers to questions that arise during the investigation.
Some resolve a factual problem. Some reconstruct a place or route. Some follow an object into a larger system. Some remain open.
These pages are not excerpts from the manuscript.
They are the evidence around it: archival discoveries, maps, photographs, field notes, source trails, and corrections as the research develops.
Research Notes are revised as evidence develops and follow the project's public Research Standards.
Movement & Power · Seville · Atlantic · Peru
How Did the Olive Tree Reach Peru?
The evidence behind Antonio de Ribera, more than one hundred olive cuttings from Seville, and the details the archive has not yet resolved.
Land & Water · Tacna · Southern Peru
Why Is the Peruvian Botija Olive Black?
Ripeness explains the color. Cultivar and curing explain why the answer is more interesting than that.
Land & Water · El Olivar · San Isidro · Lima
Why Are El Olivar’s Olive Trees Still Planted in Straight Lines?
A modern park still contains the agricultural geometry of the grove that came before it.
Movement & Power · Spain · Mediterranean · International
Was Spain Part of the Seven Countries Study?
Spain was absent from the formal cohorts but present in earlier exploratory surveys. The distinction matters when tracing Mediterranean-diet history.
Land & Water · Peru · Greece
Are Botija and Kalamata Olives the Same?
Both can be dark table olives, but their names identify different things. A careful comparison begins with cultivar, provenance, and processing.
Movement & Power · Crete · Greece
What Did the 1948 Crete Food Survey Record?
A household survey recorded food in postwar Crete before the Seven Countries Study. Its dates, sample, and methods define what it can tell us.
Currently investigating
Some questions are answered here. Others are still being followed.
The first cuttings
Where, exactly, did Antonio de Ribera obtain the olive cuttings he brought from Spain to Peru?
Garcilaso points to Seville. The more specific Aljarafe provenance is still being traced through earlier sources.
Water beneath El Olivar
What irrigation system supported the grove before San Isidro became a city?
Historical research establishes that older irrigation traces influenced the urban transformation. The network itself still needs to be reconstructed.
Why Are El Olivar’s Olive Trees Still Planted in Straight Lines?
Before there was a diet
How did observations of food and health in places such as Crete become the portable model now called the Mediterranean diet?
The investigation is moving backward from later dietary models toward the household surveys, researchers, and decisions that preceded them.
Research status · August 2026