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<TD class=date2>Jun. 12, 2005. 01:00 AM</TD></TR>
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<TBODY></TBODY></TABLE><FONT
face="Times, Times New Roman, Serif, MS Serif" color=#000000 size=6>If a
seed falls in a fortress, will it grow in 2,000 years?</FONT><BR>
<P></P><FONT face=sans-serif color=#000000 size=2>STEVEN
ERLANGER<BR></FONT><FONT face=sans-serif color=#000000 size=1>THE NEW YORK
TIMES</FONT><BR><BR><FONT face="Times, Times New Roman, Serif, MS Serif"
color=#000000 size=3>JERUSALEM—Israeli doctors and scientists have
succeeded in germinating a date seed that is nearly 2,000 years old.
<P></P>The seed, nicknamed Methuselah, was taken from an excavation at
Masada, the cliff fortress where, in AD 73, 960 Jewish zealots died by
their own hand rather than surrender to a Roman assault. The point is to
find out what was so exceptional about the original date palm of Judea,
much praised in the Bible and the Qur'an for its shade, food, beauty and
medicinal qualities, but long ago destroyed by the Crusaders.
<P></P>"The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree," says Psalm 92.
"They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and
flourishing.''
<P></P>Well, we'll see. Dr. Sarah Sallon, who runs a project on medicinal
plants of the Middle East, notes that the date-palm tree in ancient times
symbolized the tree of life. But Dr. Elaine Solowey, who germinated the
seed and is growing it in quarantine, says plants grown from ancient seeds
"usually keel over and die soon," having used most of their nutrients in
remaining alive.
<P></P>The plant is now 30 centimetres tall and has produced seven leaves,
one of which was removed for DNA testing. Radiocarbon dating in
Switzerland on a snip of the seed showed it to be 1,990 years old, plus or
minus 50 years. So the date seed dates from 35 BC to AD 65, just before
the famed Roman siege.
<P></P>Three date seeds were taken from Level 34 of the Masada dig. They
were found in a storeroom and are presumably from dates eaten by the
defenders, Sallon says.
<P></P>Mordechai Kislef, director of botanical archeology at Bar-Ilan
University, had some date seeds from Ehud Netzer, who excavated Masada in
the 1970s.
<P></P>"They were sitting in a drawer, and when I asked for one, he said,
`You're mad,' but finally gave me three," Sallon said. "Then I gave them
to Elaine, who's an expert on arid agriculture and dates.''
<P></P>Solowey said: "Well, I didn't have much hope that any would come
up, but you know how Sarah is.''
<P></P>Solowey planted the date seeds at the end of January after trying
to draw them out of their deep dormancy. She first soaked the seeds in hot
water to soften the coat, then in an acid rich in hormones, then in an
enzymatic fertilizer made of seaweed and other nutrients.
<P></P>About six weeks later, she said, "I saw the earth cracked in a pot
and, much to my astonishment, one of these came up.''
<P></P>Lotus seeds of about 1,200 years of age have been sprouted in
China. After the Nazis bombed London's Natural History Museum in World War
II and a lot of water was used to douse the fire, seeds of 500 years of
age germinated.
<P></P>The date palm symbolized ancient Israel; the honey of "the land of
milk and honey" came from the date. It is praised as a tonic to increase
longevity, as a laxative, as a cure for infections and as an aphrodisiac,
Sallon said. But the dates of Judea were destroyed before the Middle Ages,
and what dates Israel grows now were imported in the 1950s and '60s from
California and originated elsewhere in the Middle East.
<P></P>Dates need to grow 30 years to reach maturity and can live as long
as 200 years. But it is the female date palm that is considered holy and
that bears fruit. "Men are rather superfluous in the date industry,"
Sallon said.
<P></P>"Okay, I have a date plant," Solowey said.
<P></P>"If it lives, it will be years before we eat any dates. And that's
if it's female. There's a 50-50 chance. And if it's a male, it will just
be a curiosity.''
<P></P>
<P></P><BR><BR><BR>
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