Plain old pollen has helped researchers uncover ancient secrets of the garden of the biblical Ramat Rachel, which means Rachel’s Heights in Hebrew. The site is a kibbutz located south of Jerusalem in Israel overlooking Bethlehem and Rachel’s Tomb, and has long been of interest to scientists and archaeologists.
Ramat Rachel was first explored in 1930-1931. In a series of later digs (1959-1962), it was tentatively identified as the biblical Beit Hakerem (Jeremiah 6:1), one of the places from which flaming warning signals were sent to Jerusalem at the end of the First Temple period. The palace was excavated, dated to the reign of Athaliah, and identified as the House of Baal recorded in 2 Kings 11:18.
The site features a grove of 200 olive trees planted on the outskirts of the kibbutz leading up to the Olive Columns, two 33-foot high pedestals topped by live olive trees, the work of Israeli artist Ran Morin. The hotel garden features a sculpture of the biblical matriarch Rachel, who personifies the nation. In the Book of Jeremiah, Rachel is depicted as a woman of large proportions, protecting two children and surveying the horizon as though waiting for others.
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Researchers have long been fascinated by the secrets of Ramat Rachel, the site of the only known palace dating back to the kingdom of biblical Judah. Digs have revealed a luxurious ancient garden with an advanced irrigation system. They could only imagine what the original garden might have looked like in full bloom — until now. For pollen recently recovered in a 2,500-year-old garden has helped reconstruct a paradise of exotic plants, say Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers.
Using a unique technique for separating fossilized pollen from the layers of plaster found in the garden’s waterways, researchers from TAU have identified what grew in the ancient royal gardens of Ramat Rachel; and based on archaeological clues they have been able to reconstruct the lay-out of the garden.
According to scholars, the garden featured common fig and grapevine, but also included a bevy of exotic plants such as citron and Persian walnut trees. The citron, which apparently emigrated from India via Persia, made its first appearance in the modern-day Middle East in Ramat Rachel’s royal garden.
One of the unique features of Ramat Rahel’s garden is its advanced irrigation system. With no permanent water source at the site, rainwater was cleverly collected and distributed throughout the garden with aesthetic water installations that included pools, underground channels, tunnels, and gutters.
These installations finally allowed researchers to uncover what they had been searching for. After noticing that the channels and pools themselves were coated with plaster, probably due to renovation, the researchers theorized that if the plaster had ever been renewed while the garden was in bloom, pollen could have stuck to the wet plaster, acting as a trap, and dried within it.
While some plaster layers included only typical native vegetation, one of the layers, dated to the Persian period – the 5th-4th centuries BCE – also included local fruit trees, ornamentals, and imported trees from far-off lands.
Among the unusual vegetation are willow and poplar, which required irrigation in order to grow in the garden; ornamentals such as myrtle and water lilies; native fruit trees including the grape vine, the common fig, and the olive; and imported citron, Persian walnut, cedar of Lebanon, and birch trees.
Researchers theorize that these exotics were imported by the ruling Persian authorities from remote parts of the empire to flaunt the power of their imperial administration. This is the first time that the exact botanical elements have been reconstructed in an ancient royal garden, say the researchers.The botanical and archaeological information they have collected will help them to re-create the garden so that visitors can soon experience the floral opulence of Ramat Rachel that ancient peoples once enjoyed.
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Sources: American Friends of Tel Aviv University, Eurekalert.com and Wikipedia
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