Date palm cultivation during ancient times

Date palm is one of the oldest plants cultivated by human beings and has been used as food for 6000 years.

Date palm has been cultivated in the Middle East and North Africa for millennia; however, the exact origin of date palm has not been verified.

The earliest planting of date palm was coincident with the oldest civilizations and extended from northeast Africa to northwest of the Tigris and Euphrates plateau. Phoenicians promoted the planting of date palm around Mediterranean regions in ancient times. Phoenicia, the name by which part of the Levant, particularly the portion including Tyre and Sidon, was known to the Romans and Greeks, means "land of palms".

Due to the transfer of date from Phoenicia region to Mediterranean regions, Greeks call it Phoenix. Human beings carried the plant with them as a major product during emigration and promoted its use and cultivation.

It was used in Mesopotamian times since 4000 BC and by the Egyptians perhaps during 3000–2000 BC. The African date palm (P. reclinata) or the Indian date palm (P. sylvestris) or both may have been the progenitor of date palm.

In Mesopotamia, it was used for the construction of the temple of the moon god near Ur in Southern Iraq.

In Egypt's Nile Valley, it was used as the symbol for a year in Egyptian hieroglyphics and its frond as a symbol for a month. However, the culture of date palm did not become important in Egypt until somewhat later than that of Iraq.
Date palm cultivation during ancient times

History of date palms (Phoenix dactylifera L.)

The earliest records of date palms cultivation date from about 7000 BC in Mesopotamia, but it is generally believed that date culture began thousands of years earlier.

Egyptian scribes drew a single feathery palm leaf to stand for ‘month’ and ‘year’ was signified by a symbol picturing a crown of palm leaves. Since the beginning of Egypt’s history, dates have been a regular source of food.

It is in Arab culture that the date palm achieves its greatest esteem.

It is believed that date palm trees were introduced to India after the victory over India by Alexander the Great around 327 BC.

The date palm was carried to China from Iran about 1,700 years ago. Date palms were widespread in North Africa, the Near and Middle East, and a few locations in southern Europe by the Europeans first arrived in the New World.

Date palms were first introduced to Andalusia by the Arabs during the 7th and 8th centuries and later spread throughout the deserts of the Middle East and North Africa by the Bedouin tribes of the Arab countries.

The earliest record of date palm in the New World is from 1513 in eastern Cuba, and the tree apparently grew form seeds the Spanish had brought.

The first date palms is what would eventually became the United States appear to have grown from seed planted at Spanish missions of the Franciscan and Jesuit orders in California and Arizona.

History of date palms (Phoenix dactylifera L.)