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Scientists from Stockholm University (Sweden), the University of Mainz (Germany) and the University of Arizona (USA) have discovered a Pine tree, living in highlands of northern Greece, that they believed to be over 1075 years old! This Bosnian pine was found growing, with other millennial age trees, in the Pindos mountains, an area that has been populated by people for more than 3000 years. Somehow they survived through the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman empire, and World War II.
Named after Adonis (of Greek Mythology) by the scientists, this tree and others like it will hopefully provide a history of climatic and environmental conditions, dating back thousands of years.
This old tree was discovered by the Navarino Environmental Observatory (NEO) during research expeditions. This research cooperation, between the Academy of Athens, Stockholm University, and TEMES S.A., studies climate change and its affects on humans in the Mediterranean and their environments.
Timeline
The timeline created for this Adonis seedling starts in 941 A.D. with the Byzantine Empire at its peak and the Vikings reaching the Black Sea. Imagine what it could tell us about Macbeth, the Renaissance, Issac Newton, the Nazi invasion, and the invention of the SmartPhone. How have people, and their civilizations, changed in those 1075 years?
