From scientific studies we know that truffles were on the earth much earlier than humans, probably between 360 and 280 million years ago. In 3000 BC Babylonians already used to search for truffles on beaches and in the sands of desert. A legend says that truffles are born in the point where thunderbolts thrown by Zeus meet the earth.
During the Classical Period in Italy two kinds of truffles were produced: the Tuber Melanosporum, the black truffle and the Tuber Magnatum, the common white.