History of date palm trees

The history of date palm trees goes back to all the way to the humans seems to exist on planet earth and even more. The tree due to its distinct properties seems to exist in deserts and barren lands, near riverbanks before the humans have known to exist or can be traced back since the origin of planet earth. The date palm trees are found in areas that are hotter and are near equator line with dry and hot weather conditions and with less water availability or less rain. It remains the most liked and consumed fruit that had existed over time with various human civilization over time and remains a key source of high energy and high nutrition value food we consume for getting nutrition our body needs as of today. 

This fruit was cultivated and kept in storage and was used all the year due to its natural property it can be consumed and stored in a dry storage place and not as other fruits they are usually stored for short period of time in cold storage it was not there in the past. The date palm trees are of many different varieties and all dates have different taste and sizes and it’s this reason this fruit was eaten due to the variety of different flavors and liked. Some date palm is quite rare and can only be found in areas that have more humid conditions and soil with different climatic conditions and therefore cannot be grown elsewhere.

The ancient civilizations:

This fruit was grown and kept as main source of food for various civilizations that had existed and settled in areas close to water but in a hot weather conditions specially the desert areas and sometime close to river banks in northern Africa, Persian Gulf and south east Asia. It’s a staple food for middle east and the Indus valley since thousands of years. 

As far as carbon dating can tell and information that we get from archeologist we can say it originated somewhere near Iraq and since then it is known to be cultivated by various civilization ever since that includes Mehgarh 7000BC, Neolithic civilization near western Pakistan around 5530BC, Mesopotamia to Prehistoric Egypt they also cultivated used it to make vine out of these dates. The later civilization Indus valley and Harapan around 2600-2900BC.The Hebrews also made vine, bread and cakes and used the tree wood for making utensils. By ancient Rome the date palm tree was kept in the garden as sign of victory and prestige. In later times it was exported to south west Asia northern Africa and Mexico, Spain and as far as California in year 1765.