[Scpg] 2,000 years old seed germinated

[tony]

  This is simply the most amazing and fantastic story in the history of 
agriculture:

www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12...ernational/middleeast/12palm.html

JERUSALEM, June 11 - 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 ... The plant is now 11.8 
inches 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 B.C. to A.D. 65, just before the famed Roman siege. 
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, Dr. Sallon says. 
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