The age of the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane

Abstract

The olive trees (Olea europaea) in the Garden of Gethsemane were radiocarbon-dated with a view to providing an estimate of their ages and in order to determine whether they are even-aged or were planted at different times. All the tree trunks are hollow inside so that the central, older wood is missing. Furthermore, in several trees, a large void in the trunk's centre has led to its breaking-up into different stumps, which makes it very difficult to reconstruct the shape of each stem's basal area. In the end, only three from a total of eight olive trees could be successfully dated. They are of the same age, having started life all through the 12th century, when, during the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Crusaders were committing themselves to the restoration of Christian memories in the Holy Land. The dated ancient olive trees do, however, not allow any hypothesis to be made with regard to the age of the remaining five giant olives. Nonetheless, the dated olive trees of Gethsemane are a typical example of trees being cultivated in order to emphasize a cultural identity.