There has been a human settlement on the site of Olvera for more than two thousand years. Archaeological findings suggest this verdant agricultural region north-east of Ronda was an important area for settlement as far back as the Palaeolithic era, at least twelve thousand years ago.
It was definitely settled as a town by the Phoenician and Roman periods, the latter calling it either Hippa or Hippo Nova. Its first appearance in history is in the 1st century ACE History of Pliny.