After 2000 years, A Seed from Ancient Judea Sprouts

nytimes ^ | 6/12/2005 | Steve Erlanger

[wildbill]

Israeli doctors and scientists have succeeded in germinating a date seed nearly 2,000 years old.

The seed, nicknamed Methuselah, was taken from an excavation at Masada, the cliff fortress where, in A.D. 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 Koran for its shade, food, beauty and medicinal qualities, but long ago destroyed by the crusaders

[wildbill]

A similar thing was done with Anasazi beans foung in a burial pot. They are wonderfully tasty, have higher protein, and cook without soaking in just a few hours which was necessary in a high altitude.

[Luigi Vasellini]

Damn Christians destroying this tree. How does the slimes know. Couldnt have been TROP!!

[RightWhale]

How old were the beans? There were some other old seeds mentioned on the other thread.

[wildbill]

Just from memory, I think the Anasazi culture was about 800 years ago. The beans had disappeared from the high plateau country over the years.

You can now buy them in specialty and health food stores, sometimes loose in bins by the lb. and sometimes in higher priced packages.

[BenLurkin]

"long ago destroyed by the crusaders "

BULLCR@P!

[cloud8]

It is really cool that a piece of the ancient world can actually be brought to life.

But trust the NYT to make it political: "the original date palm of Judea, much praised in the Bible and the Koran for its shade, food, beauty and medicinal qualities, but long ago destroyed by the crusaders...the Prophet Muhammad considered the date of great importance for medicine, food, construction and income, and it is described in the Koran as a "symbol of goodness" associated with heaven."

Crusaders bad...Moslems good. Israelis (who made a garden out of the desert) nonexistant.

[Haru Hara Haruko]

What do these researchers have in common with Jeffrey Dahmer?

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They both keep their dates in the refrigerator.

[TheOtherOne]

Posted here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1421192/posts

[Conservatrix]

Bad. Very bad.

[hlmencken3]

Josephus records Romans destroying all the date palms at the destruction of the Temple.

Over time they made a comeback until a Muslim Turkish ruler decided to tax them, whereupon the taxpayers of TROP exterminated them. (LOL, there's a lesson there.)

They didn't make a combck until early this century when Jews were returning.

Never heard rhe Crusaders accusation.

[Mamzelle]

re: but long ago destroyed by the crusaders)))

OH for crying out LOUD!

Couldn't you have waited just a few seconds before beating that old dead horse again?

[TexasTransplant]

A few years back there was a thread here about Beer and Bread, from what I remember of the story, the author was working to make a yeast starter (like for a sourdough) and would leave it exposed to various environments at excavations of ancient cities and the yeast (that is basically all around us) was still viable and made some interesting Beers and Breads, not very Scientific (not a controlled environment) but it was interesting just the same.

I wonder how long yeast can remain viable?

[wildbill]

I carefully ran a search to make sure no one had posted it. The search function on FR stinks and always has.

[TheOtherOne]

I know, it happens to me all the time too. I spend a couple minutes searching, find nothing, post an article, and then within minutes someone links to the story I couldn't find.

FR search function leaves much to be desired.

[Frank_2001]

yeah, probably by a crusader named Sir George of Bush;)

[wildbill]

If you understand the problem with the search function, why chastise me for a duplicate post?

I can handle it, but don't understand it.

[TheOtherOne]

If you understand the problem with the search function, why chastise me for a duplicate post?

A little sensitive aren't you? I merely posted this and you felt chastised?

MY POST

Posted here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1421192/posts

[Nathan Zachary]

" but long ago destroyed by the crusaders"

It was Muhammad that burned down the date palms. not the "crusaders". The "crusaders" never came until AFTER the Muhammadans swept through the ME. before Muhammadan crusades, and the later Wesren crusades, it was the Romans. What a sloppy story.

[Nathan Zachary]

Ishaq:437 “The Apostle ordered them to prepare for war and to march against them. Muhammad personally led his men against the Nadir and halted in their quarter. The Jews took refuge against him in their homes, so he ordered their date palms to be cut down and burnt. They shouted, ‘Muhammad, you have forbidden wonton destruction of property and have blamed those who perpetrated it. Why are you doing this?’”

[AliVeritas]

"Damn Christians destroying this tree. How does the slimes know. Couldnt have been TROP!!"


The same way they knew to put a plug about Islam's prophet and his advice on dates.