It could be that the dates were not fully ripe but still yellow needed heating to further ripen them before eating.  When fully ripe there is a lot of sugar in dates so presumably this keeps them for quite a time, and presumably this is not true of dates that have not ripened sufficiently to develop sugar.  The growing of dates apparently requires extreme dry heat in a non-humid atmosphere, in which case they could grow rotten.  Date palms do require water, but only at the roots, so care is taken to keep the dates above dry.

Bea
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