Methuselah (date palm)
Methuselah (English for Methuselah ), also Judean date palm , is the name of a male date palm ( Phoenix dactylifera ) that was grown in 2005 from a 2000 year old seed that was found in 1963 during excavations in ancient Masada in Israel .
Seed discovery
In 1963, archaeological excavations began in the vicinity of King Herod's palace in the fortress of Masada . The facility is located on a ledge with steeply sloping sides and offers a wide view of the Judean Desert and the Dead Sea .
As the Roman historian Flavius Josephus reports, Herod had dates brought from the Jordan Valley around 100 miles to the north to feed the more than 900 people . After the Romans besieged the fortress in 73 AD and their defenders finally set fire to the citadel Herod due to lack of food and committed mass suicide, the fortress was left to decay.
Two thousand years later, researchers from the Bar Ilan University Tel-Aviv Archaeological Mission discovered an intact clay pot in the rubble at level 34 of the excavation. Inside were several date palm seeds whose origin based on carbon dating to the period between 35 BC. BC and 65 AD was estimated.
Sowing and germination
For 40 years the seeds were stored unnoticed in the depot of the Bar Ilan University. At the end of January 2005, the agricultural expert from the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies , Dr. Elaine Solowey , plant three of them out.
In preparation, the seeds were first soaked in warm water to soften the outer shell, then in an acidic hormone bath and then in an enzymatic nutrient solution obtained from algae. Six weeks later, one of these three seeds sprouted. The seedling was nicknamed "Methuselah" after the oldest man in the Bible , Noah's grandfather , and was initially in very poor condition. The first two leaves were very flat and pale due to lack of nutrients. "But the third one looked like a date leaf with lines, and since then each one has looked more and more normal - as if it was difficult to get out of the seed." (Quote: Dr. Solowey). The seedling was then planted in a controlled environment by employees of the Jerusalem Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center in the premises of the Arava Institute in Kibbutz Ketura .
After months of carefully hand-rearing the seedlings, the seedlings were planted in the institute's garden. There it formed inflorescences for the first time in 2011. Since then it has been certain that it is a male specimen. This means that it cannot bear fruit. However, it has been confirmed that their seeds can fertilize today's female date palms.
Further development
Since the beginning of 2020, another six seedlings have been sprouting from kernels found in Qumran on the Dead Sea and Massada.
Receptions
"[W] ithin a 2,000-year-old seed, a germ of life was still alive, waiting, waiting, waiting for the right conditions to wake, like Rip Van Winkle, into a strange and different world."
Web links
- Christoph Marty: The Methuselah Palm , Spektrum.de , June 12, 2008
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sarah Sallon, Elaine Solowey, Yuval Cohen, Raia Korchinsky, Markus Egli, Ivan Woodhatch, Orit Simchoni, Mordechai Kislev: Germination, Genetics, and Growth of an Ancient Date Seed . In: Science (2008), Vol. 320, Issue 5882, pp. 1464ff.
- ↑ Steven Erlanger: After 2,000 Years, a Seed From Ancient Judea Sprouts . In: New York Times , June 12, 2005.
- ↑ This amazing date tree was grown from a seed preserved since the time of Jesus. In: timeline.com. May 23, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2018 .
- ↑ Dates from 2,000 year old seeds. Israelnetz.de , February 10, 2020, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
- ↑ 2013 Jane Goodall in her book "Seeds of Hope"