Extinct date palms grown from 2000-year-old seeds found near Jerusalem (2024)
Seven date palm trees have been grown from 2000-year-old seeds that were found in the Judean desert near Jerusalem.
The seeds – the oldest ever germinated – were among hundreds discovered in caves and in an ancient palace built by King Herod the Great in the 1st century BC.
Sarah Sallon at the Louis L Borick Natural Medicine Research Center in Jerusalem and her colleagues previously grew a single date palm tree (Phoenix dactylifera) from one of the seeds. The team has now managed to grow a further six.
The ancient seeds were prepared by soaking them in water, adding hormones that encourage germination and rooting, then planting them in soil in a quarantined area.
The team used radiocarbon dating to reveal the seven seeds were all around 2000 years old. Genetic analysis showed that several of them came from female date palms that were pollinated by male palms from different areas. This hints that the ancient Judean people who lived in the area at the time and cultivated the trees used sophisticated plant breeding techniques.
Historical accounts of the dates that grew from the palms in this region describe their large size, sweetness and medicinal properties. The Roman scribe Pliny the Elder, for example, wrote that their “outstanding property is the unctuous juice which they exude and an extremely sweet sort of wine-flavour like that of honey”. Unlike Egyptian dates, they could be stored for a long time, meaning they could be exported throughout the Roman Empire.
Sallon and her colleagues found that the seeds of ancient Judean dates are larger than modern varieties, which is often indicative of bigger fruit. They now hope to recreate the ancient fruit by pollinating females with males.
Judea’s date palm crops started to die out after the region’s wars with Rome in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.Sallon believes the hot, dry conditions of the Judean desert probably helped to preserve the leftover seeds for so long.
Previously, the world’s oldest germinated seed was a 1300-year-old Chinese lotus seed recovered from a dried lake bed in China. In 2012, researchers in Russia grew a flower from 30,000-year-old fruit tissue recovered from frozen sediment in Siberia.
The fronds of the ancient “Judean” date palm, now re-germinated in Methuselah, are probably of the same variety brought by Pilgrims to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem 2000 years ago. The ancient date seed from which Methusaleh sprouted existed at a time when the teachings of Jesus were beginning to spread.
During 1963–1965, excavations at Herod the Great's palace on Masada, Israel, revealed a cache of date palm seeds preserved in an ancient jar. They had experienced a very dry and sheltered environment for millennia. Radiocarbon dating at the University of Zurich confirmed the seeds dated from between 155 BC to 64 CE.
Adam, Jonah, Uriel, Boaz, Judith, and Hannah are date-palm trees, and although they were all planted in recent years, the seeds from which they germinated all came from ancient archaeological sites. These seeds, according to radiocarbon dating, were about 2,000 years old. They had waited two millennia to sprout.
A handful of date seeds from fruit that ripened around the time of Jesus have been successfully planted and grown in southern Israel, researchers have revealed. The seeds, dubbed Adam, Jonah, Uriel, Boaz, Judith and Hannah, were among many others discovered at archaeological sites in the Judean desert.
The seeds were 2000 YEARS old! Judean Date Palm Trees were destroyed by the Romans. The Jews left one food store in tact but destroyed all the rest and then they all committed suicide. 2000 years later the site was excavated and many different types of seeds were found.
The disappearance of silphium is considered the first extinction of a plant or animal species in recorded history. The cause of silphium's supposed extinction is not entirely known but numerous factors are suggested.
Methuselah came first. He was planted in 2005 from an approximately 2,000-year-old seed found buried under rubble at the ancient fortress of Masada overlooking the Dead Sea. Since then, he has been joined by the others.
Complete answer: Scientists in Israel have confirmed recently that an ancient date palm seed retrieved from the rubble of Masada and successfully germinated is about 2,000 years old. It is the oldest seed ever to sprout.
Methuselah is a date palm that Dr. Elaine Solowey sprouted from a 2,000-year-old date seed. This seed, among others, was found during the excavations of Masada in the mid 1960's.
They now hope to recreate the ancient fruit by pollinating females with males. Judea's date palm crops started to die out after the region's wars with Rome in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Sallon believes the hot, dry conditions of the Judean desert probably helped to preserve the leftover seeds for so long.
While there are many different varieties available, the most common dates exported from Israel are Medjool dates in bulk. They're considered the crown jewel of the region, both for their huge size and rich flavor. Agrifood Marketing provides Medjool dates in bulk in sizes ranging from 12 to 27+ grams per date.
Seeds are produced by flowers or inflorescences. These flowers may be: either both sexes on the same plant or just one sex with male and female trees. Seeds develop on these flowers and, when mature, typically fall to the ground and are ready or near-ready for germination.
Forests of Judean date palm trees once covered ancient Israel, from Lake Galilee to the Dead Sea. The fruit of the tree symbolised life and prosperity and was praised in ancient literature for its unique medicinal properties. But the dates of Judea were made extinct by the Middle Ages.
The Methuselah palm tree is currently over 4,000 years old and is still going strong – proof that these trees are built to last! Additionally, the oldest cultivated palm tree in the world is also a date palm and is located in Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates.
Ancient grains include varieties of wheat: spelt, Khorasan wheat (Kamut), einkorn, and emmer; the grains millet, barley, teff, oats, and sorghum; and the pseudocereals quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, and chia.
Six of the seven species grow wild in Israel: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, olives and dates; the origin of the pomegranate is not known. The seven species ripen throughout the year: first to ripen is wheat, in the spring, and the last are olives and dates, in the early autumn.
Introduction: My name is Jeremiah Abshire, I am a outstanding, kind, clever, hilarious, curious, hilarious, outstanding person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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