The Hebrew Bible makes frequent mention of the use of olive oil, especially for ritual purposes, and in multiple places extols the Land of Israel for its oil-producing olive trees. But a recent discovery suggests that people living in the Promised Land were eating the olives too, for much longer than previously assumed. The Times of Israel reports:

Israeli archaeologists have found evidence of the earliest-known production of olives for consumption rather than for oil, which dates back 6,600 years.

Thousands of olive pits were found off the southern coast of Haifa, embedded in stone and clay Neolithic structures in an area that is now submerged, but is believed to have been part of the northern coast in the past. The pits were dated to around 4,600 BCE, some 4,000 years earlier than the previous earliest known use of olives for food.

“When we found the pits we could immediately see they were different than the ones used to produce oil,” said Tel Aviv University archaeologist Dafna Langot. “In the waste from the production of olive oil the pits are mostly crushed, while here the pits were mostly whole.” The researchers also did not find other telltale signs of oil production such as the remains of olive skins.

Early Friday morning, Israel attacked military installations near the Iranian cities of Isfahan and nearby Natanz, the latter being one of the hubs of the country’s nuclear program. Jerusalem is not taking credit for the attack, and none of the details are too certain, but it seems that the attack involved multiple drones, likely launched from within Iran, as well as one or more missiles fired from Syrian or Iraqi airspace. Strikes on Syrian radar systems shortly beforehand probably helped make the attack possible, and there were reportedly strikes on Iraq as well.

Iran itself is downplaying the attack, but the S-300 air-defense batteries in Isfahan appear to have been destroyed or damaged. This is a sophisticated Russian-made system positioned to protect the Natanz nuclear installation. In other words, Israel has demonstrated that Iran’s best technology can’t protect the country’s skies from the IDF. As Yossi Kuperwasser puts it, the attack, combined with the response to the assault on April 13,

clarified to the Iranians that whereas we [Israelis] are not as vulnerable as they thought, they are more vulnerable than they thought. They have difficulty hitting us, but we have no difficulty hitting them.

Nobody knows exactly how the operation was carried out. . . . It is good that a question mark hovers over . . . what exactly Israel did. Let’s keep them wondering. It is good for deniability and good for keeping the enemy uncertain.

The fact that we chose targets that were in the vicinity of a major nuclear facility but were linked to the Iranian missile and air forces was a good message. It communicated that we can reach other targets as well but, as we don’t want escalation, we chose targets nearby that were involved in the attack against Israel. I think it sends the message that if we want to, we can send a stronger message. Israel is not seeking escalation at the moment.