Ancient, but do not touch

Olive Trees

  • the fruit of the olive tree
  • also know as Olea europaea
  • which means European olive
  • it can be found throughout almost all of Europe, yes
  • but it can also be found in much of Africa, the Middle East, and even in California and Bermuda
  • it seems this one species of olive tree has taken over the world
  • edible olives have coexisted with humans for the last five or six thousand years
  • starting in ancient Persia and Mesopotamia
  • then radiating outward to Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories
  • they were even grown commercially as early as 3000 B.C.E. in Crete
  • there are certain trees in olive groves around the Mediterranean that are rumored to be the oldest olive trees in existence
  • there are currently two giant olive trees in Arraba, Israel
  • and five in Deir Hanna, Israel
  • that are said to be 3,000 years old
  • there are some olive trees in Sardinia, Italy that are between 3,000 and 4,000 years old
  • according to the islanders there
  • there is also “Plato’s Olive Tree”
  • an olive tree that is said to be a remnant from the grove in which Plato’s Academy was located
  • that would make the tree about 2,400 years old

Notice how there are no solid ages for any of those trees. We know that some of them a really old, but how old? That is still unclear. To determine the age of a tree often involves cutting it down or taking a core sample of the trunk. Disturbing these historic, sacred trees in any way would likely be inconceivable to the people who live around them. There are some lines that cannot be crossed for it is contentious if the benefits from crossing them outweighs the consequences. Yes, knowing the ages of these ancient olive trees would make this post cooler, but would it be worth the trouble of causing cultural uproar in communities where these trees are sacred?

Here is where we get into a bit of ethical scientific consideration. Science is not secluded from the outside world. Being a scientist means not only asking what your research will tell you about the natural world, but also how it can and will affect the rest of the universe. Will it bolster conservation efforts, improve human well being? Or will it serve to make people angry? And how afraid are you of making people angry?

Source

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive?oldformat=true>.