Past distribution of Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) in the mountains of Israel (Palestine)

It was widely accepted that, in the past, forests of Aleppo pine, Pinus hal epensis ('Jerusalem pine' in Hebrew), were common in Israel-Palestine and c overed vast areas of its mountains. However, an interdisciplinary research project, using botanical, historical and geographical evidence, shows a dif ferent picture. The pine is mentioned only once in the Bible, and rarefy in other religious sources. Descriptions of pine forests, or even isolated st ands, by pilgrims and travellers who visited the Holy Land up to and during the nineteenth century, are rare. Palynological investigations in the area do not reveal any significant amounts of pine pollen except for the twenti eth century. Investigations of wood remains from archaeological excavations show that Aleppo pine was rather rare, and constituted only a minute perce ntage of the wood assemblage. It can therefore be assumed quite safely that the Aleppo pine, which covered in the 1980s about 50% of the planted fores ts of Israel, was rare in the native arboreal vegetation of Israel in the p ast.