Extinct Tree From Christ's Time Rises From the Dead

[Snowden]

Extinct Tree From Christ's Time Rises From the Dead

By Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 2008-06-12 2:00 p.m. ET



Methuselah, the resurrected Judean date palm tree, at age 26 months, when it had reached a height of 121 centimeters (nearly four feet tall). Credit: Guy Eisner / Courtesy of Science Magazine


Scientists have grown a tree from what may be the oldest seed ever germinated.
The new sapling was sprouted from a 2,000-year-old date palm excavated in Masada, the site of a cliff-side fortress in Israel where ancient Jews are said to have killed themselves to avoid capture by Roman invaders.

Dubbed the "Methuselah Tree" after the oldest person in the Bible, the new plant has been growing steadily, and after 26 months, the tree was nearly four-feet (1.2 meters) tall.

The species of tree, called the Judean date, (Phoenix dactylifera L.), is now extinct in Israel, but researchers are hoping that by reviving the plant they may be able to study its medicinal uses.

"The medicinal plants from this region are very important because they are historically mentioned in the Bible and the Koran," said Sarah Sallon, director of the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem, which initiated the experiment to grow the tree as part of its Middle East Medicinal Plant Project.[FONT='Times New Roman','serif']
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Ancient date seeds from Masada. Credit: Guy Eisner / Courtesy of Science Magazine


The species of tree, called the Judean date, (Phoenix dactylifera L.), is now extinct in Israel, but researchers are hoping that by reviving the plant they may be able to study its medicinal uses.

"The medicinal plants from this region are very important because they are historically mentioned in the Bible and the Koran," said Sarah Sallon, director of the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem, which initiated the experiment to grow the tree as part of its Middle East Medicinal Plant Project.[FONT='Times New Roman','serif'] [/font]
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"The Judean date was very valuable and very famous, not just as a source of food but as a source of medicine," Sallon said. "When I heard there were ancient seeds found in the archeological dig, I thought it would be interesting to see if we could try to grow them."

Carbon dating of the seeds found at Masada revealed that they date from roughly the time of the ancient fortress' siege, in A.D. 73. The seeds were found in storage rooms, and appear to have been stockpiled for the Jews hiding out against the invading Romans.

"They were buried under mounds of debris on the top of the archaeological site of Masada," Sallon told LiveScience. "The Jews all committed suicide rather than give in to the Romans, and the Romans pretty much destroyed the site after that. It was more or less left for the next 2,000 years."

The seeds were excavated about 40 years ago, along with skeletons of those who died during the siege. Since then, the seeds had been languishing in a drawer until Sallon and her team decided to attempt to grow them anew.

They turned the project over to plant specialist Elaine Solowey at the Arava Institute of the Environment in Kibbutz Ketura, Israel. She pretreated the seeds in fertilizers and hormone-rich solution, and then planted them. So far, Methuselah is the only one to sprout.

Though a few trees have been planted from seeds that are rumored to be older than the Masada ones, the Methuselah tree holds the record for the oldest directly-dated seed to be germinated. Scientists determined its age from control seeds taken from the same batch, and from shell fragments from the sprouted seed itself.

Beyond being exciting as a piece of history literally come to life, Sallon said, the new date plant may hold the key to rediscovering ancient healing techniques.
"When we look at ancient sources and Hebrew texts, the dates were used for all kinds of things — pulmonary problems, tuberculosis, dysentery, cancer. We think of it today as just a food. But in fact the date wasn't just a food."


Extinct Tree From Christ's Time Rises From the Dead | LiveScience
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[Woodmonkey]

I thought I posted in this thread already! I read about this quite a while ago. Interesting process.

[Snowden]

Here's another article about it:

The Jesus tree: Date palm is grown from 2,000-year-old seed


By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 11:43 AM on 13th June 2008

Enlarge
Israeli scientists grew the date palm from a 2,000-year-old seed


It's the sort of palm that wouldn't look out of place in a modern office.


But there is nothing ordinary - or modern - about this sapling.


The 5ft-tall plant was grown from a 2,000-year-old seed found at the ancient Israeli fortress of Masada.


It came from a Judean date palm tree that could have been growing in the forests between Galilee and the Dead Sea when Jesus was alive.

The discovery has astonished botanists. Previously, the most ancient seed to germinate was 1,300 years old and had been preserved in cold water.

The scientists who grew the seed said it came from a date eaten by one of the 960 Jewish rebels who occupied the Roman garrison at Masada during the great uprising against Rome.

After a three-year siege, the Jews famously committed suicide rather than surrender and become slaves.

The plant has been named Methuselah after the oldest person in the Bible, and is now in the care of Dr Sarah Sallon, a British doctor who runs the Hadassah Medical Organisation in Jerusalem.



'I think it's very exciting,' said Dr Sallon. 'I'm Jewish and the history of this place is very close to my heart. It could have been eaten by one of the inhabitants of Masada shortly before they killed themselves. The fact it comes from that period of history is very moving.'

The seed was discovered inside a jar full of the discarded pits of dates during excavations of Masada in the 1960s.

Dr Sallon - an expert in medicinal plants - soaked the seed in warm water and fertiliser three years ago before she planted it. Within eight weeks it had started to sprout.



The ancient date seeds may help restore a species of biblical trees


At the time, the scientists were unwilling to risk damaging the seed by carrying out radiocarbon dating. But when the time came to transfer the sapling to a bigger pot, the researchers discover fragments of the seed's shell attached to the roots.

Tests on these, reported today in the journal Science, confirmed the sapling was around 2,000 years old - the time when the Masada was in use.

Previously, the oldest seed to produce a plant was a 1,300-year-old Chinese lotus grown in America in the 1990s.

Judean date palms - also known as 'trees of life' - once formed thick forests all along the Jordan River.

The forests were destroyed by the Romans and the Judean date palm became extinct more than 1,000 years ago.

Today, Israel imports palms. So if the sapling bears fruit, it will be first time anyone has tasted a real Judean date for more than a millennium.

However, the team will not know whether the tree is a male or female for another two years.

If the Methuselah tree is female, it could be used for cross-breeding to restore the long extinct species. Early DNA tests suggest the 2,000-year-old plant could share around half its genetic code with modern dates.

The fruit was believed to provide a natural remedy for numerous ailments, ranging from heart problems to constipation. It was also used to treat TB, gut problems, chest infections and worms.

In Roman times, Judean dates were a famous delicacy. The historian Pliny described them as large and delicious.

Enlarge



The Jesus tree: Date palm is grown from 2,000-year-old seed | Mail Online

[Woodmonkey]

It would be wonderful if it would fruit.

[Woodmonkey]

Tree from 2,000-year-old seed is doing well

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science WriterThu Jun 12, 3:42 PM ET

Just over three years old and about four-feet tall, Methuselah is growing well. "It's lovely," Dr. Sarah Sallon said of the date palm, whose parents may have provided food for the besieged Jews at Masada some 2,000 years ago.

The little tree was sprouted in 2005 from a seed recovered from Masada, where rebelling Jews committed suicide rather than surrender to Roman attackers.

Radiocarbon dating of seed fragments clinging to its root, as well as other seeds found with it that didn't sprout, indicate they were about 2,000 years old — the oldest seed known to have been sprouted and grown.

Sallon, director of the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah Medical Organization in Israel, updates the saga of Methuselah in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

One thing they don't know yet is whether it's a boy or girl. Date palms differ by sex, but experts can't tell the difference until the tree is six or seven years old, Sallon said.

She hopes there's a chance to use it to restore the extinct Judean date palm, once prized not only for its fruit but also for medicinal uses.

The researchers have had a look at the plant's DNA, however, and found it shares just over half its genes with modern date cultivars.

"Part of our project is to preserve ancient knowledge of how plants were used," Sallon said in a telephone interview. "To domesticate them so we have a ready source of raw material."

Her Middle Eastern Medicinal Plant Project is working to conserve and reintroduce plants to the region where they once lived.

"Many species are endangered and becoming extinct. Raising the dead is very difficult, so it's better to preserve them before they become extinct," she said.

The oldest documented seed to be grown previously was a 1,300-year-old lotus, Sallon said.