Abracadabrah<br><br><i> I create as I speak</i>: An Israeli Date Palm 2000 years in the Making

Saturday, June 11, 2005

An Israeli Date Palm 2000 years in the Making

A scientist in Israel has succeeded in germinating a date palm nearly 2000 years old, found at Masada, the ancient citadel in the desert, built by Herod, that held out against the Romans for so long.

The seed, nicknamed Methuselah, was taken from an excavation at Masada, the cliff fortress where, in A.D. 73, 960 Jewish zealots died by their own hand, rather than surrender to a Roman assault. The point is to find out what was so exceptional about the original date palm of Judea, much praised in the Bible and the Koran for its shade, food, beauty and medicinal qualities, but long ago destroyed by the crusaders.

"The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree," says Psalm 92. "They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing."

It's up to 7 leaves now. The trick is to get it to continue to grow -- date palms take 30 years to grow fruit -- and then only if they are female. Apparently many of these ancient seeds use up all their energy simply to germinate -- and then shortly whither. We'll see if this one manages to live. This is apparently the oldest seed ever germinated as well - by many hundreds of years.

In the time of Pliny, forests of date palms covered the area from Lake Galilee to the Dead Sea and made Jericho famous; a date palm features on ancient coinage, as it does on the current Israeli 10-shekel coin.

The date palm symbolized ancient Israel; the honey of "the land of milk and honey" came from the date. It is praised as a tonic to increase longevity, as a laxative, as a cure for infections and as an aphrodisiac, Dr. Sallon said. But the dates of Judea were destroyed before the Middle Ages, and what dates Israel grows now were imported in the 1950's and 60's from California and originated elsewhere in the Middle East.

The Prophet Muhammad considered the date of great importance for medicine, food, construction and income, and it is described in the Koran as a "symbol of goodness" associated with heaven.