Scientific discovery: the varieties of olives - Syrian, Nabali and Melisi that we eat today have existed since the Masada period, from the time of the destruction of the Second Temple.

A team of scientists led by Prof. Mordechai Keslo from Bar Ilan University discovered that the olive pits found in the Masada excavations are similar to those of today * 1,700 year old olive trees are still growing in Israel and the pits are the same

Olive trees, courtesy of Roni Hasid Public Relations Office (the photo was sent next to the news about the Olive Conquerors Championship).

Bar Ilan University recently held a seminar dedicated entirely to the identification of botanical varieties from the Biblical period. One of the interesting studies presented at the conference is by Prof. Mordechai Keslo, an expert in botanical archeology from Bar-Ilan University, who recently gained world fame with the publication of his articles on the beginnings of agriculture.
Prof. Keslo and his team - Dr. Orit Simhoni and Master's student Yonit Tabak, conducted a study in recent years in which they were able to identify that the three traditional varieties of olives that exist in Israel - Syrian, Nabali and Melisi - were found in Masada excavations long after the destruction of the Second Temple. "Thousands of olive pits were preserved intact in Masada," says Prof. Keslo, "and according to their properties it was possible to identify which varieties they belonged to." The integrity of the pods indicates that they were used for conquests and not for oil production, evidence of this is that over 90% of the pods found belong to the Hanbali variety intended mainly for pickling.
In the continuation of the research, Kaslo and his team used the existing information according to which there are ancient trees (in Nahal Zeyton, Gethsemane, Nebi Samuel, Tzuba and the Rama-Zefat road) whose age is 1,000 to 1,700 years and more!. On these trees that were discovered, the same olives grow for all these years, which proves that the oil that the olives contained in ancient times is the same oil today!

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