The Ancient Judean Date Project is a unique botanical achievement that has achieved worldwide recognition.
Based on germinating ancient seeds recovered from local archaeological sites in Israel, the project was initiated, planned, organized and written for publication by Dr. Sarah Sallon, Founder and Director of The Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah Medical Organization, Jerusalem.
Part of Dr. Sallon’s ongoing research to study past and present medicinal & economic flora of Israel, the aim of the ancient seed project was to restore species once found in this region but now extinct.
Dr. Sarah Sallon
Director/Founder of The Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center (NMRC), Hadassah Medical Organization Jerusalem, Israel.
Dr. Elaine Solowey
Founder, The Center for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES), Kibbutz Ketura, Israel.
The Masada Seeds
Two of the ancient seeds germinated in this program were discovered in the 1960s by Prof. Yigal Yadin during archaeological excavations of Masada, Herod’s palace/fortress overlooking the Dead Sea. Buried under rubble for 2000 years, these ancient seeds were germinated by Dr. Elaine Solowey, founder of the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at the Arava Institute of Environmental Studies, Ketura. They have now grown into two impressive date palms – “Methuselah”, the oldest germinated in 2005 and “Adam” in 2007.
From Judean desert caves The 5 remaining date palms in the Ancient Date Project, “Judith”, “ Jonah”, “Boaz”, “Uriel,” and “Hannah”, were grown from seeds discovered in the 1980s by archaeologist Prof. Joseph Patrich of Haifa University and The Hebrew University, during excavations of caves in the Judean Desert including Qumran, site of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
How old are the ancient seeds?
According to radio-carbon dating, performed at the university of Zurich, Switzerland, shell fragments of the germinated seeds range in age from the 4th -2nd century BCE (“Methuselah” and “Hannah”), 2nd -1st century BCE (“Adam” and “Judith”) and 1st and 2nd century CE ( “Boaz”, “Uriel”, and “Jonah”).
