In the Shephelah region or the Judean foothills of south-central Israel, archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a Seleucid Hellenistic fortress that was burned by Hasmonean (Judean) conquerors Israeli archaeologists have revealed the secrets behind the Assyrian siege ramp that conquered the ancient Judean town of Lachish. For thousands of years, the date palm was a staple crop. In early 2019, three of the six trees named by Dr. Solowey Adam, Jonah and Hannah were moved out of their greenhouse home to be planted outdoors at the Arava Institutes Daniel Fischel & Sylvia Neil Research & Visitors Park. Now a major discovery has come regarding these projects, from of all places, his bathtub. This remarkable feat confirms the long-term viability of the kernels once ensconced in succulent Judean dates, a fruit cultivar lost for centuries. Need prayer? Following this success, six further preserved seeds were sprouted.[2]. Date palm cultivation is thought to be up to . YWAM Founder Loren Cunningham Diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer. Nefer Say Nefer - Was Nefertiti Buried in the Valley of the Queens? The harvest of the much-extolled but long-lost Judean dates was something of a scientific miracle. The findings suggest that it might be a good option for examining the lifetime of plant seeds. Because they were famous. Genesis 5:25-27 says that Methuselah lived 969 years! It is not clear whether there was ever a single distinct Judean cultivar, but dates grown in the region have had distinctive reputations for thousands of years, and the date palm was anciently regarded as a symbol of the region and its fertility. It became the Jews symbol of grace and elegance and was often bestowed by them to women. For example, Davids beautiful daughter was named Tamar. The researchers conducted a series of tests to verify the age of the seeds, and it was confirmed through carbon 14 dating that they were more than 2,000 years old. Sarah M. Wells is the author ofThe Family Bible Devotionaland two collections of poems,Between the Heron and the MossandPruningBurning Bushes. I too wonder if this is a specific species as date palms have been cultivated forever. She was planted in 2019. The date palms are named for Biblical figures. This is the second year of harvesting fruit from this previously extinct tree, brought back to life by Dr. Elaine Solowey. Dates were one of the seven species listed as special to the land of Israel, described in the bible as honey., A land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey; Deuteronomy 8:8. [16] Methuselah flowered in March 2011 and is male. She was also interested in how plants can be used for medicine. Solowey has nurtured more than 100 rare or near-extinct species back to life as part of a 10-year project to study plants and herbs used as ancient cures. (Guy Eisner / Sciencemag). The characteristics of the Judean date palm may shed light on aspects of ancient cultivation that contributed to the quality of its fruit and is thus of potential relevance to the agronomic improvement of modern dates, the authors write. Ancient sources have suggested that the Judean date palm tree had many unique medicinal properties no longer found in todays palm varieties. For the next four decades, the ancient seeds were kept in a drawer at Tel Aviv's Bar-Ilan University. If this is indeed a specific species, the author should make that clear and name the species. The ancient fruit made tonics for longevity, laxatives, and aphrodisiacs; lore claims they could cure infections. Theres a resurrection story you probably havent heard coming out of Judea. Hannah grew for six years, then flowered. In 2011, the plant produced its first flowers and today, the living archaeological treasure continues to grow and thrive. Call us at 1 315 4971058. Date plants grown from 2,000 year-old-seeds | CNN Thats why we view every news story through the lens of faith. The species of palm was thought to be extinct for 800 . In experiments praised by the Dalai Lama, for example, Dr. Sarah Sallon has shown that ancient Tibetan cures for cardiovascular disease really do work. And then I realized that many of these species had actually disappeared. The date was so important to the region that it featured on ancient coinage, and even on Israel's 10-shekel coin today. The seeds were held in storage for 40 years at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan.[10][11]. Learn more here. [24], Researchers at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies at Kibbutz Ketura plan to grow dates resurrected from seeds found at archaeological sites in the Judaean Desert and Masada in large quantities using tissue culture, and then establish them in commercial plantations.[25]. Available at: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Seed-of-extinct-date-palm-sprouts-after-2-000-2628668.php, Sallon, S. et al. Growing in a greenhouse for the last nine years,Judith was recently transplanted in what Kibbutz Ketura calls the Ancient Judean Date Orchard. In March of this year, she was pollinated using pollen from Methuselah. After devising a method to sprout them, Solowey succeeded in sprouting seeds found in other places such as the Qumran caves in the area where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The age of the seeds range from some of the oldest germinated seeds in the world - Methuselah, Hannah, and Adam with a carbon date to the first to fourth centuries BC, to the mid-second century BC to mid-first century AD plants known as Judith and Boaz, to the youngest of the Judean date palms - Uriel and Jonah are the youngest (first to second centuries AD). Scientists in Israel grow date plants from 2,000-year-old seeds. And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there existcountless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts thathave yet to be discovered and explained. Its mentioned in the Bible as one of the seven species found in the ancient Land of Israel. In the middle of Israels Arava Desert, a farming community is bringing trees back to life thats bearing fruit from the time of the Bible. How could it be?" Phoenix dactylifera and over 1000 other quality seeds for sale. Other date seeds were found in caves near the Dead Sea. Who Destroyed the Great Library of Alexandria? Sarah Sallon, director of the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center in Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, led a team that included Elaine Solowey, and Nathalie Chabrillange. Read more: Date palm grown from 2,000-year-old seed is a dad . The tree so defined the local economy that it became a prime resource for the invading Roman army to destroy. We seek to retell the story of our beginnings. [17] By November 2011 it was 2.5 metres (8ft 2in) high, having been transplanted from pot to earth. An ancient Israeli coin depicted a palm tree with two baskets of fruit beneath. Its possible that they brought the seeds with them on their return to Zion, she said. Recently, Hannahs fruit was harvested for the first time. This opens the door to thousands of potential experiments. They were the first dates to ripen from date palms grown from seeds that are more than 2,000 years old. Trees are like humans in that you need the pollen from a male tree to pollinate the flowers of a female plant. ( The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies ). Make sure to buy dates that haven't been pitted. From Extinction to Resurrection: The Judean Date Palm Tree Government Bouncers on Your Church's Front Door? Thanks Jo. On Friday, an unusual ceremony was held on a hilltop overlooking the Old City in Jerusalems Abu Tor neighborhood. 32 additional intact seeds were chosen, out of which 6 sprouted. Younger Methuselah. Watch the video below to learn more about the resurrection of this formerly extinct Judean date palm tree. I think the biggest problem is hydrating them because if you hydrate them too quickly, you kill them and you only get one crack at each seed, Solowey told CBN News. . The fruit of the tree symbolised life and prosperity and was praised in ancient . Israel365 News is the only media outlet reporting on it. Pliny the Elder, a Roman naturalist of the 1st century AD, wrote that Jericho's dates were known for their succulence and sweetness, though he distinguished a considerable variety of them and discussed several different varieties by name. The other date palms to have sprouted from these ancient seeds are known as Adam, Hannah, Judith, Jonah, Boaz and Uriel. Female plants need male pollen to produce fruit, and all six of the new date palm trees are female, Sallon explains. Both Adam and Jonah have produced flowers. So, in 2005, Sallon turned to Solowey, an expert on arid agriculture, for help. And Solowey and Salone are hoping eventually to add the revived Judean dates to the harvest. Goor only detects a decline in date cultivation through the period of Early Arab rule and especially during the Crusades, when he notes that the devastation of the region was particularly hard on the palm plantations. Were available 24/7. Hundreds of seeds were collected between 1963 and 1991. cultivation of dates in the region began to decline. The researchers discovered that the seeds were up to 30 percent larger than date seeds today, which probably meant the fruit was larger, too. It would be interesting if they were used back then for the same reasons, she tells NoCamels during a phone call from her Jerusalem home. One was separated out as a control. The palm tree can appear on the coin either in combination with the mourning woman, or without her. until the 11th century C.E.but then it went extinct centuries ago. Archaeobotanical records suggest that the earliest exploitation and consumption of dates is from the Arabian Neolithic some 7000 years before the present., The plump, golden-brown dates hanging in a bunch just above the sandy soil were finally ready to pick., The answer, Im happy to say, is sweeter than you think. [5], When the Roman Empire invaded ancient Judea, thick forests of date palm up to 80 feet (24m) high and 7 miles (11km) wide covered the Jordan River valley from the Sea of Galilee in the north to the shores of the Dead Sea in the south. Ancient Judean date palm trees resurrected from ancient seeds. The Bible says that it is not good for man to be alone. Growth and development of the seedling over 26 months was compatible with normal date . Methuselah is and for a long time researchers believed that this was the only Judean date palm they would ever see. Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, "New Life, From an Arctic Flower That Died 32,000 Years Ago", "After 2,000 Years, These Seeds Have Finally Sprouted", "2000-Year-Old Date Pit Sprouts In Israel", "2,000-Year-Old Seed Sprouts, Sapling Is Thriving", "Extinct Judean Date Palm Grows After 1500 Years", "1.4.8 The Crusader period and Little Ice Age, 1.0 ka to 0.4 ka BP, and 1.4.9 The Moslem-Ottoman period, 0.4 ka to 0.1 ka BP", "From Extinction to Resurrection: The Judean Date Palm Tree", "Origins and insights into the historic Judean date palm based on genetic analysis of germinated ancient seeds and morphometric studies", "Researchers confirm age of "Methuselah" tree", "2000-Year-Old Date Pit Sprouts in Israel", "Medicinal date palm from oldest known seed planted", "Date palm grown from 2,000-year-old seed is a dad", "Israeli researchers grow new date plants from 2,000-year-old seeds", "The genomes of ancient date palms germinated from 2,000 y old seeds", "Scientists Resurrect Mysterious Judean Date Palms From Biblical Era", "Extinct tree from the time of Jesus rises from the dead", How King Solomon and the Romans Shaped the Judean Date Palm, "Germination, Genetics, and Growth of an Ancient Date Seed", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Judean_date_palm&oldid=1142182782, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2018, Articles with disputed statements from July 2018, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from December 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 23:58. The first tree, Methuselah, was discovered to be male. [4], Its likeness was engraved on shekalim, the ancient Hebrew unit of currency. Dr. Solowey - and that at least one is a female! Scientists Grew Palm Trees From 2,000-Year-Old Seeds Judean dates were once renowned for their size and flavor Brigit Katz Correspondent February 7, 2020 These palms are a modern variety. At the heart of the ceremony was a small package of dates. (Guy Eisner / Sciencemag). For thousands of years, the date palm was a staple crop. Actually, this one came from Qumran -- was found in the caves -- and much to our astonishment, she also sprouted, said Elaine Solowey, the botanist who coaxed the seeds to grow. One that disappeared centuries ago was the Judean date. Modern day studies have shown dates benefit digestion, lower cholesterol, improve memory, increase blood production, have aphrodisiac properties, and strengthen the nervous system. SEE ALSO: Bottoms Up: Israeli Scientists Brew Beer With Resurrected Yeast From 5,000 Years Ago. As the researchers hoped would be the case with their revived date palms, plants irrigated from the Jerusalem waters would be uniquely vibrant and grant special medicinal qualities. It is not clear whether there was ever a single distinct Judean cultivar, but dates grown in the region have had distinctive reputations for thousands of years, and the date palm was anciently regarded as a symbol of the region and its fertility. Methuselah, Adam, and Hannah date back to the first to fourth centuries BCE. Spanish conquistadors couldn't believe their eyes while exploring the rugged terrain of the Andes during their invasion of Peru. The Romans eventually succeeded and by 500 AD the once plentiful date palm had almost completely disappeared, driven to extinction for the sake of conquest. Methuselah was chosen to father the fruit and pollen from his plant was placed onto Hannah's flowers. They were then dosed with Gibberellic acid, a growth-promoting plant hormone, and enzymatic fertilizer. Call it Canaan, the Levant or the Ancient Near East; the region has always had a troubled history of warfare and invasions. A Long-Lost Legendary Roman Fruit Tree Has Been Grown - ScienceAlert Great piece I had no idea about such amazing botanical work going on. Many books and videos show depictions of vast work forces hewing blocks of stone in the hot desert sun and carefully setting them into place. Sallons near future plans include learning more about the new-old dates, how to reintroduce the Judean date to the market, and continue to research the medicinal properties of these dates. The Judean Date Palm symbolized ancient Judah and was mentioned in the Bible but when the nation it symbolized was conquered and sent into exile in 70 CE, cultivation of dates in the region began to decline. After the successful germination of the first seed, Dr. Solowey and Dr. Sallon took to replicating the experiment. Really? AtAncient Origins, we believe that one of the most important fields of knowledge we can pursue as human beings is our beginnings. Thick forests of the ancient date palms towering up to 80 feet (24.38 meters) and spreading for 7 miles (11.27) covered the Jordan River valley from the Sea of Galilee in the north to the shores of the Dead Sea in the south. After all, it took 15 years of patience, hope, anticipation, and ground-breaking agriculture techniques to make the seemingly botanically impossible feat possible. Three weeks later, the oldest tree to be successfully germinated sprouted. And though shes just nine-years-old, she carries an ancient heritage., Its possible to divide the world in two: the part that venerates the humble-seeming fruit known as the date, and the part that does not. Cultivation of dates in the region almost disappeared after the fourteenth century AD from a combination of climate change and infrastructure decay but has been revived in modern times. Dr. Elaine Solowey, director of the Center for Sustainable Agriculture of the Arava Institute, and Dr. Sarah Sallon, director of the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center of Hadassah Hospital, harvested these ancient dates in the culmination of an ambitious, decades-long experiment to raise the biblical-era Phoenix dactylifera date palm from the dead. Then, two things happened: either Chaos or Gaia created the universe as we know it, or Ouranos and Tethys gave birth to the first beings. We're talking about the resurrection of 2000-year-old plus ancient date seeds that come from the Judean Desert and from Masada and which are part of a scientific experiment, said Sarah Sallon, Director and Founder of The Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah Medical Organization, Jerusalem. Please check your information and try again or call us at 1-800-759-0700. The Judean Date Palm: Extinct Tree Resurrected from Ancient Seeds Scientists Resurrect Mysterious Judean Date Palms From Biblical Era Methuselah the tree was grown from a 2,000-year-old seed found at Masada. Researchers revived a 2,000-year-old palm from seeds found inside an ancient Judean jar. Between 2011 and 2014 Ms. Solowey planted the seeds and six more have sprouted over the years. Nature has this immense power to renovate itself, to rejuvenate itself. (2015) Extinct Tree Resurrected from Ancient Seeds is now a Dad. Ancient Origins. The open hilltop, which is known as the Hill of Evil Counsel, is at the center of a battle that the neighborhood residents, including Sallon, are fighting against a construction project that they say will obliterate it. Methuselah the Judean Date Palm is still going strong even after sprouting from a 2,000-year-old seed. For conservation, Sallon, who moved from England to Israel, tells NoCamels. By Benjitheijneb (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons Get out the cigarsMethuselah, a. These unique dates are currently being kept cool in storage. By the age of 10, most children in the United States have been taught all 50 states that make up the country. A land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey. Solowey planted some three thousand of them on Kibbutz Ketura, where each tree produces around 350 pounds of dates a year. 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( The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies ) So valued was the tree that it became recognized as a symbol of good fortune in Judea. A previous experiment with the seeds produced a single male plant that sprouted in 2005 which the researchers named Methuselah. Cultivation of dates in the region almost disappeared after the fourteenth century CE from a combination of climate change and infrastructure decay but has been revived in modern times. Five years ago, National Geographic reported that Methuselah was over ten-feet tall and had been used to pollinate a wild modern female date palm. Dates tree grown by a 2,000-year-old seed retrieved from archaeological sites in the Judean Desert, in Ketura, Israel, September 2, 2020. Its fruit was a staple of the Judean Desert and grew in thick forests along the Dead Sea and Jordan River valley. To donate to Dr. Soloweys ancient dates research project, click here. [17][20] By 2015 Methuselah had produced pollen that has been used successfully to pollinate female date palms. An ancient coin design depicting a date palm and two baskets full of dates has been reused for the front side of the modern Israeli ten-shekel coin. There are other types of dates in the world, but according to Pliny the Elder (writing in the first century AD), none were as succulent or as sweet as the Judean date palm. The first of the ancient date seedlings, Methusaleh, is named for the oldest person mentioned in the Bible. Extinct Tree Grows Anew From Ancient Jar of Seeds - Treehugger In ancient times, date palms were used for their supposed medicinal properties to cure many diseases and infections, promoting longevity and acting as a mild aphrodisiac. What cured here, she thinks, were some traditional herbal remedies., The date palm has a historical distribution stretching from Mauritania in the west to the Indus Valley in the east. 3 min read. The eastern ones are all the species from Arabia and Iraq, and the western ones are from North Africa, Sallon explained. But 800 years ago, crusaders destroyed the last Judean palm and rendered the plant extinct. Home Judean Date Palm Grown From 2,000 Year Old Seed Bears Fruit. [20] The genomes of these Judean date palms germinated from ancient seeds were sequenced and analyzed. Holy Land Uncovered on location special from Kibbutz Ketura, where 2 female scientists created a Miracle!! Judean Date Palm Revived from Extinction by Emily Frances - i24, Sept. 14th, 2020 "Dr. Elaine Solowey, Desert Plant Pioneer, successfully grew an extinct Judean Date Palm tree from a 2000 year old seed. In biblical times, the Judean date palm was revered throughout the region for its medicinal qualities. I am sure you are familiar with his legend which states that he was born in a manger surrounded by shepherds, about Herod the Greats Alabaster Bathtubs, about Seleucid Sling Stone Sheds New Light on Jewish Hannukah Story, about Rogue Priest Second Temple Silver Coin Found By Girl in Jerusalem, about Evidence of Hannukah Story Found in Razed Hellenistic Fortress, about New Study Reveals How Legendary Assyrian Siege Ramp Overcame Lachish, about Mesopotamian Superpowers Laying Waste To The Ancient Near East, For Sale In Britain: A Small Ancient Man With A Colossal Penis, Sacred Marvels: 17 Cathedrals That Will Take Your Breath Away, In Pictures, Egyptologists Reveal a Lost Chamber in the Great Pyramid With Cosmic Rays, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Unleashing the End of the World. Judean Date Palm Grown From 2,000 Year Old Seed Bears Fruit. In June of 2020, Hannah became the first Judean date palm tree, resurrected from the dust of ancient seeds, to bear fruit. However, its value was also the source of its demise and eventual extinction. They all sat in storage for over 40 years. Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, Director of the Arava Institute at Kibbutz Ketura, sees this as. Sallon says the dates seem to offer hope in todays world of uncertainty. Until Sallon initiated a project aimed at germinating ancient seeds to reintroduce extinct plants previously grown in the region and learn about their qualities.

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