Forests of Judean date palm trees once thrived across the ancient land of Israel, spanning from the picturesque shores of Lake Galilee to the mesmerizing expanse of the Dead Sea . These majestic...
To reconstruct the climate of ancient Egypt, Swiss scientists have resorted to an unexpected source - mummy labels. These labels, which were affixed to the bodies of mummies during the Roman era, are...
Finland is known as a country with many forests. In fact, over 75% of Finland is covered in forests. Therefore, it is not surprising that Finnish folklore includes several myths and stories told...
The largest measured tree in the world is a 275-foot (83.8 meter) sequoia known as General Sherman. Estimated at being 2,000 or 3,000 years old, the tree grows in the Sequoia National Park’s Giant...
It is something of a reporter’s dream when a press release comes in saying that a rare wooden artifact from the Great Pyramid of Egypt has been discovered in a cigar box in Scotland. And as if this...
In the modern day and age, crime is no less present than it was several hundred years ago. Sure, the world did become a lot more civilized, but criminals still exist. But the truth is, that while...
For thousands of years, the date palm was a staple crop. In the Kingdom of Judea it was a source of food, shelter, medicine, and shade. But the plant went extinct due to waves of conquest and...
Why were certain plants raised from mere utility to reverence in the collective consciousness of various populations from different cultures? This elevation from purely physical use to the realm of...
Ten years since the Judean Date Palm was miraculously brought back to life following the chance discovery of seeds in the 2,000-year-old ruins of Masada, the male date palm tree named Methuselah, the...
Radiocarbon dating, invented in the late 1940s and improved ever since to provide more precise measurements, is the standard method for determining the dates of artifacts in archaeology and other...
In secluded fields, on the walls of churches, and beneath construction sites, stones have been found with intricate markings that rise from the lower left up to the center and then down to the lower...
A majestic ponderosa pine, standing tall in what is widely thought to have been the "center of the world" for the Ancestral Puebloan people, may have more mundane origins than previously believed,...
A new botanical scientific study on ginkgo trees highlights the species’ hyper-charged defenses and apparent escalation towards “immortality.” Native to China , G inkgo biloba , also known as the...
The idea of hanging up decorations in the middle of winter is older than Christmas itself. Decorations are mentioned in ancient descriptions of the Roman feast of Saturnalia , which is thought to...
At a staggering 88 meters tall, a 400-year-old tree found in the Brazilian Amazon has been declared the region’s largest tree. Researchers are now trying to figure out how it grew to such heights...
2,200 years ago an Iron Age woman was buried in what is today Zurich and in her 'Tree Coffin’ she was dressed and draped for a ball…in the afterlife. The ancient Celtic woman’s remains were excavated...
Every year as December rolls in, some 2 billion people start to feel the Christmas cheer. While the celebration is primarily a Christian one honoring the birth of Jesus, its traditions merge with the...
Those raised in the Judeo-Christian tradition may be surprised to learn that the god we were told was singularly sacred once had a wife. How do we know? Asherah figures prominently as the wife of El—...
India is a very beautiful country and it has a culture full of symbolism. In what follows, some of the more popular Indian symbols are presented. These are some of the icons that are very relevant in...
Nine of 13 of Africa’s oldest and largest baobab trees have died in the past decade, it has been reported. These trees, aged between 1,100 and 2,500 years, appear to be victims of climate change...
In Italy, researchers have found what they believe to be the oldest living tree in Europe, having calculated its age to be approximately 1230 years old, according to a report from Discovery. The tree...
The Armada Tree is the name given to a sweet chestnut tree in the graveyard of a small church in Northern Ireland, UK. According to local legend, the tree grew, rather unintentionally, from a...
Critically endangered South American forests thought to be the result of climate change were actually spread by ancient communities, archaeologists have found. Huge swathes of land in Chile, Brazil...
A team of geologists have discovered remnants of a 280-million-year-old fossil forest in Antarctica. They suggest that the trees of the forest survived through periodic extremes of total darkness and...