INTERDISCIPLINARY ACADEMIC COLLABORATION
INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM OF RESEARCHERS
We are an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Haifa, Israel with partnerships across Israel and beyond who are undertaking a groundbreaking study aimed at devising a methodology for revitalizing ancient heritage tree cultivars within a current-day context. Initiated in 2024 and funded by the European Research Council (ERC), our ERC ADVANCED GRANT project is entitled "BOSTAN-TREE”, an acronym that stands for ‘Bioarchaeology of Orchards and Sustainable Terroir in the Arid Near East: Trends in Ecology and Evolution’. Our objective is to help improve food security that is under the incessant threat of global warming by devising the technology and methods needed for retrieving ancient DNA from heritage cultivars and reintroducing the hardy, arid resistant traits possessed in archaic trees into the agricultural industry.
These components are being applied in the restoration of local plant (tree and grape) varieties that were once the hallmark of ancient agricultural-based economies. Our focus is on the historical presence in the Negev desert in the 3rd-8th centuries CE as well as the continuation of this activity throughout the Middle Ages, the Ottoman Empire (1517-1917 CE) and British Mandate (1918-1948) periods. While conducting fieldwork among the ruins of historical agriculture sites, we found feral cultivars -- wild ancient fruit tree varieties. Working together with local and national government authorities and other related NGO's and research affiliates, we are uncovering the genetic past of these legacy cultivars and applying our understandings to isolate their unique facets and restore them to the market under current climate conditions.