[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Dried fruit is probably one of the first foods we learned to process to store long term.

[pierrem15]

Even then you don't get a lot of it without agriculture and you can't dry it economically without the right fruit and conditions.

So, yes, dates grown on palms in the desert can be dried. I can't even recall that the Romans, who had a mainly dry climate in the Med, had much dried fruit. They did use honey as a preservative for some fruit I think, but then the cost would have been enormous. Widespread consumption of dried fruit is mainly a modern phenomenon I think.