Researchers Resurrect Extinct Judean Date Palm Tree from 2,000-Year-Old Seed

In the foreboding, cliff-side fortress of Masada some 2,000 years ago, Jewish Zealots savored sweet dates from Judean palm trees, gazed at the Dead Sea, and perhaps spit seeds onto the palace floor while Roman invaders converged below. Now, researchers led by Dr. Sarah Sallon of Jerusalem's Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center, part of the Hadassah Medical Organization, have brought an extinct date palm back to life, by resurrecting the oldest seed ever.

Sallon calls it Methuselah, and she describes her team's carbon-dating and genetic-analysis efforts in the 13 June 2008 issue of the journal Science.

Read more about Methuselah.