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Beginnings and early history of date palm garden cultivation in the Middle East
Abstract
Despite its economic and symbolic importance in the arid regions of the Middle East little is still known about the early cultivation of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.). Besides its numerous uses, this fruit tree constitutes the main species and structural element of the date palm gardens that characterize the hot deserts of the Old World. These agrosystems, perfectly adapted to the specific constraints of the environment, concentrate agricultural production in an artificial and intensively cultivated space depending on irrigation. While the first evidence of the cultivation of date palms in southern Mesopotamia dates to the 5th millennium B.C., oasis agriculture seems to have developed mainly during the early Bronze Age (from around 3000 B.C.) when this type of agrosystem can be reconstructed in different parts of the Middle East: Mesopotamia, southeastern Iran and eastern Arabia. The present paper draws together evidence from different kinds of sources (archaeobotany, texts, iconography) bearing on the early history of oasis agriculture. Questions of particular interest are the organization of past date palm gardens and their irrigation.
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“Agricultural products such as cereals, legumes and fruits, grown in date-palm gardens have been attested at Early Bronze Age settlements in southeastern Arabia [46–50].”
From Identifying pastoral and plant products in local and imported pottery in Early Bronze Age southeastern Arabia (2025) · cites this paper as [47]
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Research works printed but not linked: 22
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Metadata
- Authors
- Tengberg, M.
- Venue
- Journal of Arid Environments
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2012-11
- Volume
- 86
- Pages
- 139-147
- ISSN
- 0140-1963
- Cited by
- 215
- References
- 0
- Language
- en
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