Judean date palm

The Judean date palm is a date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) grown in Judea. 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. 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.

The Judean Date Palm at Ketura, Israel, nicknamed Methuselah.

In 2005, a preserved 2000-year-old seed sprouted.[1] It is the oldest verified human-assisted germination of a seed (the claim in 2012 of a 32,000-year-old arctic flower involved fruit tissue rather than a seed).[2] The palm, named Methuselah (not to be confused with a bristlecone pine tree of the same name), was about 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) tall in June 2008.[3] As of November 2011, it is reported at 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in) high, having been transplanted from pot to earth.[4] By May 2015, the palm was 3.0 metres (9.8 ft) tall and was producing pollen.[5] As of February 2020, Methuselah had reached 3.5 meters (3.8 yards).[6]

Even if the pollination of a female Judean date palm, grown of a seed from the same batch, with Methuselah's pollen should succeed, the resulting fruit would not represent the recreation of the original ancient cultivar, i.e. the resulting fruit will not have the taste of its ancient predecessor, given that cultivars are created through repeated asexual reproduction through shoots, and not through seeds.

History

Fruit of the date palm was considered a staple food in the Judaean Desert, as it was a source of food and its tree of shelter and shade for thousands of years, and became a recognized symbol of the Kingdom of Judah. It grew around the Dead Sea in the south, to the Sea of Galilee and the Hula Valley regions in the north. The tree and its fruit caused Jericho to become a major population center and are praised in the Hebrew Bible possibly several times indirectly, such as in Psalms (Psalms 92:12-15), "The righteous himself will blossom forth as a palm tree does", and date clusters (Hebrew: תַּלְתַּלִּים‎‎) are mentioned in the Song of Songs (Song of Songs 7:7).

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. Modern studies have been done in an attempt to confirm their medicinal value.[7]

Its likeness was engraved on shekalim, the ancient Hebrew unit of currency. According to historical sources, the taste of them was something splendid. Already in the fifth century BCE, Herodotus noted that the greatest importance of the Judean dates was that they were drier and less perishable than those from Egypt and thus suitable for storage and export, which is still an important distinction today. Pliny the Elder, a Roman naturalist of the 1st century CE, 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.[8]

When the Roman Empire invaded ancient Judea, thick forests of date palm up to 80 feet (24 m) high and 7 miles (11 km) wide covered the Jordan River valley from the Sea of Galilee in the north to the shores of the Dead Sea in the south. The tree so defined the local economy that the Roman emperor Vespasian celebrated the reconquest after the First Jewish Revolt (66-70 CE) by minting Judaea Capta coinage, a series of coins sometimes depicting Judaea as a mourning woman beneath a date palm. The palm tree can appear on the coin either in combination with the mourning woman, or without her.[9] Andrea Moresino-Zipper contests that in the former case, it is the woman who symbolises the defeated Judaea and the towering, dominating palm stands for victorious Rome, while in the latter case the palm tree does represent Judaea.[9]

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.

Decline

It is sometimes claimed that date growing as a commercial fruit export stopped at the end of 70 AD, when the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans.[10] However, study of contemporary sources indicates that the date industry continued in Judea throughout the Roman period and that, indeed, the Roman Imperial treasury collected a good deal of the profits.[11] Asaph Goor, in his 21-page article History of the Date through the Ages in the Holy Land, never mentions any such Roman devastation of the date palms, but rather cites numerous contemporary accounts attesting to the continuing extent of date cultivation through the Roman period. 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. However, despite this, extensive cultivation persisted in Jericho and Zoara, until the agrarian economy collapsed during Mamluk rule around the 14th century, which he attributes to a change in the climate. Goor quotes several later, Ottoman-period travellers to the area as to the rarity of date palms, including Pierre Belon, who in 1553 scoffed at the idea that the region could have ever produced the bounty of dates reported in ancient sources.[8]

Climatological research has proven that immediately after 1000, the climate has become colder and more humid, reaching a peak around 1600, followed by a century of severe heat and drought, and then again by colder times with more rainfall.[12] A 1974 study blames the 15th-century disappearance of date palms from the Jericho-Ein Gedi region on human activity, but Goor raises the possibility that the climate change led to the springs in the area delivering less water, which harmed the water-intensive cultivation of date palms.[12]

Vespasian coin celebrating the victory over the rebels. The legend says: IVDEA CAPTA ("Judaea [has been] captured")

Symbolism

The book Plants of the Bible by Michael Zohary states: “The Hebrew word for the date palm is ‘tàmâr.’ ... It became the Jews’ symbol of grace and elegance and was often bestowed by them to women.” For example, David’s beautiful daughter was named Tamar.

Germination of 2000-year-old seed

Ancient seeds

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 centuries. Radiocarbon dating at the University of Zurich confirmed the seeds dated from between 155 BC to 64 AD. The seeds were held in storage for 40 years at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan.[13][14]

Germination and growth

In 2005, Dr. Elaine Solowey from the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies managed to sprout several seeds, by pretreating them in a fertilizer and hormone-rich solution. Three of the seeds were subsequently planted at Ketura, Israel, in the Arabah in southern Israel.[13] Eight weeks later, one of the seeds had sprouted, and by June 2008, the tree had nearly a dozen fronds and was nearly 1.4 metres (4 ft 7 in) tall. By the summer of 2010, the sapling stood about 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) tall.

The plant was nicknamed "Methuselah" after the longest-lived person listed in the Bible. Methuselah is remarkable in being the oldest known tree seed successfully germinated, and also in being the only living representative of the Judean date palm, a tree extinct for over 800 years, which was once a major food and export crop in ancient Judah.

Gender and implications

In 2005, before knowing the gender of the palm tree, Dr. Solowey was hoping that it would turn out to be female, for which there was a 50% chance, because that would have allowed it to give fruit; on the contrary, "if it's a male, it will just be a curiosity."[15]

Methuselah flowered in March 2011 and is male.[16]

Crossbreeding attempts

As of 2012, there were tentative plans to crossbreed the palm with what was considered its closest extant relative, the Hayani date from Egypt, to generate fruit by 2022.[16]

New sprouts and pollination plans

By 2015 Methuselah had produced pollen that has been used successfully to pollinate female date palms.[17]

As of 2019, additional Judean date palm seeds have been grown. Thirty-two seeds from locations in the Dead Sea area were planted, and six saplings (Adam, Jonah, Uriel, Boaz, Judith, and Hannah) have survived. As of February 2020, Adam was 1.5 meters high (1.6 yards). Both Adam and Jonah have produced flowers. Because several seedlings are female, it is hoped that it will be possible to pollinate one or more of the female Judean date palms with the pollen from Methuselah.[6]

When compared with three other cultivars of date palm, genetic tests showed the plant to be closely related to the old Egyptian variety Hayani, 19% of its DNA being different, and an Iraqi cultivar (16% different DNA).[18] They may have shared the same wild ancestor.

Significance

In addition to its honoured place in the history of Judea, the palm may contribute useful characteristics, such as environmental tolerance and disease resistance, to modern date cultivars.

Sarah Sallon, the head of the project, wants to see if the ancient tree has any unique medicinal properties no longer found in today's date palm varieties. "The Judean date was used for all kinds of things from fertility, to aphrodisiacs, against infections, against tumors," she said. "This is all part of the folk story."

gollark: Wow! This is rather tremendous-sounding.
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gollark: Hmm?
gollark: Much snappier.

See also

References
  1. "An extinct Biblical plant returns to life" Archived February 7, 2006, at the Wayback Machine at Israel Hayom.
  2. Wade, Nicholas (2012-02-20). "New Life, From an Arctic Flower That Died 32,000 Years Ago". The New York Times.
  3. "Researchers confirm age of "Methuselah" tree" at Reuters
  4. Siegel-Itzkovich, Judy (2011-11-25). "Medicinal date palm from oldest known seed planted". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2013-08-24.
  5. "Date palm grown from 2,000-year-old seed is a dad".
  6. Winer, Stuart; Surkes, Sue (6 February 2020). "Israeli researchers grow new date plants from 2,000-year-old seeds". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  7. Roach, John (2012-11-22). "2,000-Year-Old Seed Sprouts, Sapling Is Thriving". National Geographic News. Retrieved 2013-08-24.
  8. Goor, Asaph (Oct–Dec 1967). "The History of the Date through the Ages in the Holy Land". Economic Botany. 21 (4): 320–340. doi:10.1007/bf02863157. JSTOR 4252895.
  9. Andrea Moresino-Zipper (2009). Gerd Theissen; et al. (eds.). Die Judaea-Capta-Münze und das Motiv der Palme. Römisches Siegessymbol oder Repräsentation Judäas? (The Judaea Capta coin and the image of the palm tree: Roman symbol of victory, or representation of Judaea?). Jerusalem und die Länder: Ikonographie - Topographie - Theologie. Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus/Studien zur Umwelt des Neuen Testaments (NTOA/StUNT) (Book 70) (in German). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 64–67. ISBN 9783525533901. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  10. Jones, Larry (2010-03-11). "Extinct Judean Date Palm Grows After 1500 Years". Follow-The-Light. Retrieved 2013-10-01.
  11. Safrai, Ze'ev (2005) [1994]. "I.3.4 Dates". The Economy of Roman Palestine (Electronic ed.). London: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-0-203-20486-3. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
  12. Issar, Arie S. (2004). "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". Climate Changes during the Holocene and their Impact on Hydrological Systems. International Hydrology Series. Cambridge University Press. p. 28. ISBN 9780521607735. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  13. "Dr. Elaine Solowey". The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
  14. "Methuselah". The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  15. Steven Erlanger (12 June 2005). "After 2,000 Years, a Seed From Ancient Judea Sprouts". The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  16. Miriam Kresh (2012-03-25). "2000-Year-Old Date Pit Sprouts in Israel". Green Prophet Weekly Newsletter. Retrieved 2012-05-13.
  17. "'Methuselah' Palm Grown from 2,000-Year-Old Seed is a Father". 2015-03-24.
  18. Sarah Sallon; Elaine Solowey; Yuval Cohen; Raia Korchinsky; Markus Egli; Ivan Woodhatch; Orit Simchoni; Mordechai Kislev (2008). "Germination, Genetics, and Growth of an Ancient Date Seed". Science. 320 (5882): 1464. Bibcode:2008Sci...320.1464S. doi:10.1126/science.1153600. PMID 18556553.
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