Fossilized Palm Fronds Discovered in Jerusalem

This is what the palm fronds found by Dr. Samuel Adamson and his team were like before they were fossilized. Continue reading to learn more about the discovery.

OK, our latest story doesn't exactly take place in Riverville, but since it stills concerns a resident of Animal Adventures Inc., I decided I should bring it up to my readers anyway. Just last Tuesday, our resident paleontologist Dr. Samuel “Sam” Adamson and his wife Dr. Indiana Adamson were with their fossil hunting team in the Middle East where a recent dinosaur discovery took place. While the discovery of dinosaurs in the Middle East was exciting for the pair, their next discovery would totally take them by surprise. Their group was making a brief stop in Jerusalem when they came across a surprising discovery in their hotel's basement – fossilized palm fronds! You can bet my trusty, junior photographer, Daniel P. Smithwater and I were at Animal Adventures Institute in a flash to interview the Adamson's.

“I went into the basement to help one of my team members bring some extra chairs to our room,” says Dr. Samuel (it wasn't one of those hotels with room service), “but when I was about to lift a chair, I noticed some peculiar stone slabs stacked up in the corner of the room. . . that's when I realized that I'd stumbled on an amazing discovery.” He drew his teammates attention and the two of them began studying the stone slabs and realized that some of them possessed what looked like fossilized palm fronds, while the others were palm frond imprints. The two men got curious and questioned the hotel's manager. He told them that they had been collected by some local teenagers looking for extra cash. The manager figured they might be worth keeping, so he bought them.

After learning about the palm fronds value, Dr. Samuel was able to buy all of the stone slabs to have them more thoroughly and learned some more about where they were found and to their origin. The team of paleontologists finally located where the slabs were found – the slabs were found on a Jerusalem street. Since there were never enough palm trees along the street to produce this many palm fronds, this made the scientists think that they were brought here and laid upon the street. This is when they recalled a certain section of Bible scripture: Luke 19:29-44. In this part of his book, Luke records a time when Jesus Christ rode into the streets of Jerusalem on a colt. Many of the city's residents praised Jesus and sang “Blessed is the King Who comes in the Name of the Lord! Peace in Heaven and glory in the highest!” They also laid palm fronds on the ground as He walked to Harold his arrival into the city. It wasn't much later when many of these same Jews wanted Jesus crucified on a cross.

“Now understand, we're not archaeologists,” says Dr. Indiana. “We're paleontologists, those are scientists who study ancient animals. Archeology is the study of ancient humans. Those are the scientists that would normally study things like this. Of course, without any archaeologists on our team, it was up to us to get clues from the scene.” Indiana explained that if these are the palms were indeed from Jesus' arrival into Jerusalem, then something must have happened to quickly cover them up in order for them to fossilize. “We believe it rained and mud covered up the palm fronds. We know these palm fronds couldn't have been exposed for too long, because otherwise they would have rotted extremely quickly.”

After they'd retrieved all the information from the site they needed, the scientists took their stone slabs, notes and supplies back to the U.S. to be studied by real archaeologists at the Riverville Museum of Natural History. They found that the paleontologists were correct that these palm fronds were probably from Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem. Other then the location of their discovery, a major clue is the age of the palm fronds: they're around 2,000 years old – that's about the time Jesus walked the earth!

“This brings up two things to my mind,” says Dr. Samuel. “The first thing is that it doesn't take millions of years for objects to fossilize, contrary to popular belief. They just have to be buried quickly and/or be in the right conditions. This isn't the first time something has fossilized in a short length of time – hats, hams and water wells are objects that have been known to fossilize in less than 100 years!”

Indiana was especially glad to be part of this amazing find, as she's quoted for saying, “I'm just glad I could take part in the discovery and investigation of the fossilized palm fronds. It also really brings to life what was really going on during the last days of Jesus' life on earth. People were praising and glorifying Him as He strode into Jerusalem on a donkey, but all too soon, Jesus was arrested for crimes He never committed. Many of the Jews who had praised Him and laid palm fronds at His feet were probably some of the same Jews who wanted Him dead. This amazing discovery also reminds me of the price Jesus paid for us to have eternal life. He was beaten, spat on and whipped. And as if that wasn't enough, He was led along a road – Dela Rosa, also known as “The Road of Suffering” – carrying His own cross. He was crucified on that cross to take our penalty for our sins, but three days later – on Easter – He rose again! That's what I think makes this discovery so thrilling for me personally.”

Written by: Mr. Smiley

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan

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