Beginnings and early history of date palm garden cultivation in the Middle East |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia\n;2. Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia\n;3. Center for Medicinal, Aromatic and Poisonous Plants Research, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia\n;4. Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia\n;5. Department of Pathology, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia\n;1. Faculty of Biological Sciences, Department of Biology and Physiology of Organisms, University of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumediene (USTHB), Algiers, Algeria;2. Laboratory of Medical Botany, University of Algiers, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pharmacy, Algiers, Algeria;3. CHU Mustapha, Pierre and Marie Curie Center, Pharmacy Department, Algiers, Algeria;1. Biological and Geological Science Department, Faculty of Education, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt;2. Agricultural Biotechnology Department, College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia;3. Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt;4. Department of Agricultural Sciences, PL-27, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland |
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| 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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