Olive
Trees & Babylonia
“Olive trees (Olea europea) are
even more choosy than grapevines about their growth
conditions, olives being less hardy than grapes in that they
cannot tolerate hot and cold extremes (young plants or
shoots especially cannot tolerate frost). Olive trees are not
mentioned in Sumerian cuneiform texts as having been grown in southern
Mesopotamia in antiquity. This is not only because the climate of
southern Mesopotamia is too hot (good for dates but not for
olives), but because a country so subject to inundation is not
at all favorable to the cultivation or even growing of the
olive.”ArcImaging - The Search For Noah's Ark