[Nachum]

It was explained to me by our tour guide about 6 years ago in Israel. They found 2000 year old date seeds and tested the DNA. Then they grafted the seeds and tried other ways to get the seeds to germinate.

Amazingly, they got at least on seed to germinate and produced a date palm from it. I am assuming they did the same to some grape vines or grape pits found in an excavation.

I would LOVE to taste those dates. The dates of ancient Israel were supposed to be so full of date honey that it could be collected if the dates were placed in a bowl.

[faithhopecharity]

yes, it is AMAZING what the Israeli scientists can do...
including Making the Desert Bloom again...

here’s your 2,000 year old date palm...all nice and big and blooming beautifully....just as it did 2000 years ago...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/150324-ancient-methuselah-date-palm-sprout-science/

[SJackson]

I can understand that, germinating ancient seeds, or attempting it. Obviously they'd want to look at the dna. The article only briefly mentions dna as a component in the technique, which made me think of backbreeding. But you're probably right that they worked from an ancient seed.

Of course everything is on FR

Tree From 2,000-Year-Old Seed Doing Well (Methuselah)

[gleeaikin]

Apparently they did get the date seed to grow. The Romans apparently destroyed all these dates to extinguish the Jewish economy. I suspect the grapes were more likely to be backbred through DNA studies.