Judean date palm facts for kids
The Judean date palm is a type of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) that grew in the ancient land of Judea. It's not clear if there was one special kind of Judean date palm. However, dates from this region have been famous for thousands of years. The date palm was also seen as a symbol of the area and how fertile it was. Growing dates in Judea almost stopped after the 1300s because of changes in the weather and old water systems breaking down. But in modern times, people have started growing them again.
In 2005, a group of scientists managed to sprout a 2,000-year-old seed. This was the oldest seed ever sprouted with human help. (In 2012, a 32,000-year-old arctic flower was also grown, but that used plant tissue, not a whole seed.) The palm tree that grew from this seed was male and was named Methuselah. After this success, six more old seeds were also sprouted.
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A Look Back: History of the Judean Date Palm
An Important Plant in Ancient Times
The fruit of the date palm was a main food in the Judaean Desert for thousands of years. The tree also gave shelter and shade. It became a well-known symbol of the Kingdom of Judah. Date palms grew from the Dead Sea in the south all the way to the Sea of Galilee and the Hula Valley in the north. Because of the tree and its fruit, Jericho became a very important city. The date palm is even praised in the Hebrew Bible. For example, in Psalms (92:12–15%20{{{2}}};&version=KJV; Psalms 92:12–15 {{{2}}}), it says, "The righteous himself will blossom forth as a palm tree does." Date clusters (Hebrew: אַשְׁכֹּלֽוֹת) are also mentioned in the Song of Songs (of Songs 7:8%20{{{2}}};&version=KJV; Song of Songs 7:8 {{{2}}}).
In ancient times, people thought date palms had special healing powers. They believed dates could cure many sicknesses and help people live longer. Today, scientists are studying dates to see if these old beliefs are true.
The image of the date palm was even carved onto shekalim, which were ancient Hebrew coins. Old stories say these dates tasted amazing. As early as the 400s BC, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote that Judean dates were very important because they were drier than Egyptian dates. This meant they could be stored and shipped easily, which is still true today. Pliny the Elder, a Roman writer from the 1st century AD, said that dates from Jericho were known for being juicy and sweet. He even described several different kinds of dates by name.
When the Roman Empire took over ancient Judea, thick forests of date palms grew in the Jordan River valley. These trees could be up to 24 meters (80 feet) tall and the forests 11 kilometers (7 miles) wide. The date palm was so important to the local economy that the Roman emperor Vespasian celebrated his victory after the First Jewish Revolt (66–70 AD) by making special coins. These coins, called Judaea Capta coinage, sometimes showed Judea as a sad woman under a date palm. The palm tree could appear on the coin with or without the woman. Some historians think that when the woman is there, she represents defeated Judea, and the tall palm stands for victorious Rome. But when the palm tree is alone, it might represent Judea itself.
A design from an ancient coin, showing a date palm and two baskets full of dates, is now used on the front side of the modern Israeli ten-shekel coin.
The Decline of Date Palm Farming
Some people say that growing dates for sale stopped around 70 AD, when the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans. However, studies of old writings show that the date industry continued in Judea during the Roman period. In fact, the Roman government even collected a lot of money from date sales. A historian named Asaph Goor, who wrote a long article about the history of dates in the Holy Land, never said the Romans destroyed the date palms. Instead, he found many old accounts that showed date farming continued to be widespread during Roman times.
Goor noticed that date farming started to decline during the early Arab rule and especially during the Crusades. He wrote that the fighting during the Crusades was very hard on the palm farms. But even then, a lot of date farming continued in Jericho and Zoara. The farming economy finally fell apart during the time of the Mamluk rulers, around the 1300s. Goor believes this was due to a change in the climate.
Studies of the climate have shown that right after the year 1000, the weather became colder and wetter. It was coldest around 1600, followed by a century of very hot and dry weather, and then colder times with more rain again. A study from 1974 blamed human actions for the disappearance of date palms from the Jericho-Ein Gedi region in the 1400s. But Goor suggested that climate change might have caused the springs in the area to provide less water. This would have harmed the date palms, which need a lot of water to grow.
What the Date Palm Symbolizes
The book Plants of the Bible by Michael Zohary explains: "The Hebrew word for the date palm is ‘tàmâr.’ ... It became the Jews’ symbol of grace and elegance and was often given by them to women." For example, David’s beautiful daughter was named Tamar.
Bringing Back Ancient Seeds: The Methuselah Project
Finding and Dating Old Seeds
Between 1963 and 1965, during digs at Herod the Great's palace on Masada, Israel, scientists found a hidden group of date palm seeds. They were kept safe in an old jar. The seeds had been in a very dry and protected place for thousands of years. Scientists used Radiocarbon dating at the University of Zurich to find out how old the seeds were. They learned the seeds were from between 155 BC and 64 AD. The seeds were then stored for 40 years at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan.
How the Seeds Sprouted and Grew
Dr. Sarah Sallon had the idea to try and sprout some of these ancient seeds. She convinced the archaeological storage at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to share some. She gave the challenge to her friend, Dr. Elaine Solowey, from the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. In 2005, Dr. Soloway successfully sprouted several seeds. She slowly gave them water in a baby bottle warmer and then treated them with a common mix of fertilizer and growth hormone. Three of the seeds were later planted at Ketura, Israel, in the Arabah area of southern Israel. The plant was nicknamed "Methuselah" after the person in the Bible who lived the longest.
Methuselah grew its first flowers in March 2011 and is a male tree. By June 2008, the tree had almost a dozen fronds (palm leaves) and was nearly 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) tall. By November 2011, it was 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) high, after being moved from a pot to the ground. By May 2015, the palm was 3.0 meters (9.8 feet) tall and was making pollen. As of February 2020, Methuselah had reached 3.5 meters (11.5 feet).
New Plants and Future Plans
By 2012, there were plans to crossbreed the male Methuselah palm with what was thought to be its closest living relative, the Hayani date from Egypt. The goal was to produce fruit by 2022. However, since then, two female Judean palms have also been sprouted. By 2015, Methuselah had produced pollen that was successfully used to pollinate female date palms.
As of 2019, a total of thirty-two Judean date palm seeds have been grown from different places in the Dead Sea area. Six young trees (called saplings) have survived: Adam, Jonah, Uriel, Boaz, Judith, and Hannah. As of February 2020, Adam was 1.5 meters (1.6 yards) high. Both Adam and Jonah have produced flowers. Since several of these new plants are female, scientists hope to use Methuselah's pollen to pollinate one or more of them. The genetic information of these Judean date palms, grown from ancient seeds, has been studied.
As of June 2021, dates have grown from the pollination of Hannah, one of the female plants, by Methuselah. The dates that were harvested are now being studied for their qualities and nutritional values.
Researchers at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies at Kibbutz Ketura plan to grow many more dates from seeds found at old sites in the Judaean Desert and Masada. They will use a method called tissue culture to grow them in large amounts. Then, they hope to set up commercial farms for these ancient date palms.
Family Tree: Genetic Connections
When compared with three other types of date palm, genetic tests showed that Methuselah is closely related to an old Egyptian type called Hayani. About 19% of its DNA is different from Hayani. It is also related to an Iraqi type, with 16% different DNA. This suggests they might have all come from the same wild ancestor.
Besides its important place in the history of Judea, this ancient palm might have useful traits. For example, it might be able to handle different environments or fight off diseases better. These traits could be helpful for modern date palms.
