Dates from the Ancient Kingdom of Judea
Our Ancient Judean date palms were germinated from seeds more than 2000 years old. Currently The ancient date ‘family’ includes 7 trees: “Methuselah”, “Hannah”, “Adam”, “Judith”, “Jonah”, “Boaz”, and “Uriel”. This unique scientific project, the only one of its kind in the world, was initiated in 2005 by Dr. Sarah Sallon, Director of the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah Hospital, in cooperation with Dr. Elaine Solowey of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, Ketura. Since then it has become internationally known through several scientific publications and worldwide media interest.
Dr. Elaine Solowey
Founder, The Center for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES), Kibbutz Ketura, Israel.
Picture by Nadav Soloway
Dr. Sarah Sallon
Director and Pounder, The Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center (NMRC), Hadassah Medical Organization Jerusalem, Israel.
Picture by Deborah Eisner
The first ancient date palm to be grown was “Methuselah”. The seed, discovered at Masada and radiocarbon-dated from the 4th -1st centuries BCE, was described in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest ever germinated.
Other ancient date seeds in this project have been radiocarbon-dated to the time of the Jewish Wars against Rome (1st – 2nd century CE) and earlier. “Hannah”, (4th -1st century BCE), is the oldest female tree and was pollinated by Methuselah in 2020. In the same year she produced delicious Judean dates – the first in 2000 years!
The Judean date was a symbol of ancient Israel and is described in the Bible as one of the seven species with which the Land of Israel was blessed. Extinct for many centuries, the Judean Date Palm has been resurrected at Kibbutz Ketura in this special and unique project.
