Mordechai E. Kislev (; born: 8 May 1937) is an Israeli emeritus

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

in the Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of

Life Sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, ...

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, , ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 ...

, specializing in

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. Some of his prominent research focuses on prehistoric early

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

and archaeological

entomology Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

. Other works explore the ancient landscape of the Land of Israel, as well as

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

and

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

issues.

Early life and education

Mordechai Kislev was born in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

. He studied at

Kiryat Tiv'on Kiryat Tiv'on (, also Qiryat Tiv'on) is a town in the Haifa District of Israel, in the hills between the Zvulun (Zebulon) and Jezreel valleys. Kiryat Tiv'on is located southeast of Haifa, on the main road to Nazareth. Kiryat Tiv'on is the resul ...

high school, and when he was 17, enrolled in the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

and studied

for a year. In 1955 he enlisted in the

Nahal Nahal () (acronym of ''Noar Halutzi Lohem'', lit. Fighting Pioneer Youth) is a program that combines military service with mostly social welfare and informal education projects such as youth movement activities, as well as training in entrepr ...

, and was one of the founders of Kibbutz Ein Gedi. Kislev continued to

M.Sc. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

in botany (with minors:

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

and

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

). He also studied in the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

language department and for one year at the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

department in the Hebrew University, and his Ph.D. was received from the Hebrew University in botany in 1972. Kislev authored the thesis: Pollination ecology of desert plants under the supervision of Prof. M. Zohary and Prof. J. Galil.

Career

Kislev was a postdoctoral researcher in archaeobotany during the years 1971–1973 at the Biologisch-Archaeologisch Institut,

Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...

Netherland , informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands consists of twelve provinces; i ...

and at the Institute of Archaeology,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, UK. He then joined Bar-Ilan University's department of Life Sciences as an instructor, and a year later as a Lecturer. In 1974 he founded the

archaeobotanical Paleoethnobotany (also spelled palaeoethnobotany), or archaeobotany, is the study of past human-plant interactions through the recovery and analysis of ancient plant remains. Both terms are synonymous, though paleoethnobotany (from the Greek words ...

lab in Bar-Ilan. The lab is now run by his former students: Prof. Ehud Weiss, Dr. Yoel Melamed and Dr. Anat Schenkman-Hartmann. In 1979 he was promoted to a senior lecturer in the Life Science department and in the department of

Eretz Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definitions ...

Studies. Kislev became an associate professor in 1991 and a full professor in 1998, teaching and researching in both departments. Kislev was also a member of the appointments and discipline committees in the university. He was also a teacher in the Michlalah Jerusalem College for 20 years. In 2006 he retired as an emeritus professor, and continued working there for another 12 years. On 13 June 2008 an article was published in Science magazine about germination of about 1900 years old date seed, which was excavated at Masada.

Research work

Kislev's research interests include: archaeobotany and storage archaeoentomology, origin of cultivated plants, archaeological entomology, Torah and Science. Archaeobotany: using Archaeological findings such as

seed In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...

s and

fruits In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

, Kislev's lab reconstructed ancient environments, climate changes,

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...

s and

commerce Commerce is the organized Complex system, system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions that directly or indirectly contribute to the smooth, unhindered large-scale exchange (distribution through Financial transaction, transactiona ...

. Kislev has prepared together with his students computerized plant keys for classifying and identifying ancient seeds and fruits from the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. Some of his prominent works include dating the beginning of agriculture using findings such as

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

and

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Moraceae, native to the Mediterranean region, together with western and southern Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and i ...

. In 1979 Kislev discovered a new, extinct wheat species, Triticum parvicoccum, found only in archaeological excavations. In 1985, Kislev found charred seeds of

horse bean ''Vicia faba'', commonly known as the broad bean, fava bean, or faba bean, is a species of vetch, a flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated as a crop for human consumption, and also as a cover crop. Varieti ...

, dating back to the 7th millennium B.C. thus pushing back the known use of this vetch by about 2000 years. In 2006, Kislev's team discovered an early domesticated fig in the Jordan Valley, dating back to about 11,400 to 11,200 years ago. Kislev is also engaged in identifying ancient species from the Middle East that disappeared as a result of climate changes. A sub-category of this field is the identification of fruit stones from the

Roman age In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

Masada Masada ( ', 'fortress'; ) is a mountain-top fortress complex in the Judaean Desert, overlooking the western shore of the Dead Sea in southeastern Israel. The fort, built in the first century BCE, was constructed atop a natural plateau rising ov ...

by comparing them with the varieties of olive,

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and Agriculture, cultivated in China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and the glossy-skinned, non-fuzzy varieties called necta ...

plum A plum is a fruit of some species in Prunus subg. Prunus, ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are often called prunes, though in the United States they may be labeled as 'dried plums', especially during the 21st century. Plums are ...

and

apricot An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus ''Prunus''. Usually an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are also ...

that were preserved in the traditional

arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

agriculture in Israel. Origin of domesticated plants: Kislev traces the beginnings of plants’ cultivation as well as that of the

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

of the species involved, such as the emergence of wheat agriculture. Archaeological entomology: together with Dr. Orit Simchoni, Kislev studies the field that is influenced by the growing awareness to the usage of agriculture

pest control Pest control is the regulation or management of a species defined as a pest (organism), pest; such as any animal, plant or fungus that impacts adversely on human activities or environment. The human response depends on the importance of the da ...

. Kislev and Simchoni have found in archaeological site remains of a storage pest Lesser grain borer (

Rhyzopertha ''Rhyzopertha'' is a monotypic genus of beetles in the family Bostrichidae, the false powderpost beetles. The sole species, ''Rhyzopertha dominica'', is known commonly as the lesser grain borer, American wheat weevil, Australian wheat weevil, an ...

Dominica). These insects feed, grow and reproduce in grains and other foods that are saved in storage houses. As a result of this study, Kislev suggests that this kind of pest was not present in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

during

Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

’s time. This can explain how he managed to store large amounts of food and save the Egyptians from hunger. Torah and Science: Kislev work in this field focuses on Halachot relating to botany and zoology. The combination of Halacha and Archaeological Botany that Kislev pioneered, forms a base for new insights on the implementation of Halachot in areas such as Torah lessons,

blessing In religion, a blessing (also used to refer to bestowing of such) is the impartation of something with doctrines of grace, grace, Sacred, holiness, spiritual Redemption (theology), redemption, or Will of God, divine will. Etymology and Germani ...

s, foods and more. Notable examples are Kislev articles on Kezayit (in Hebrew: כְּזַיִת) – a volume unit in Jewish law which is approximately equal to the size of a common variety of olive), as well as on 'Kakotevet' (in Hebrew: כַּכּוֹתֶבֶת) – another volume unit similar to a date variety with very large fruits). In addition, in a recent article Kislev presents an actual question dealing on the

Kashrut (also or , ) is a set of Food and drink prohibitions, dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to halakha, Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed ko ...

of insects in food – what is more healthy – eating 'clean'

vegetables Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including flowers, fruits, ...

and fruits which contain harmful insecticides, or eating them with some unseen insects.

Other professional work

Kislev is an advisory member of the

Academy of the Hebrew Language The Academy of the Hebrew Language (, ''ha-akademyah la-lashon ha-ivrit'') was established by the Israeli government in 1953 as the "supreme institution for scholarship on the Hebrew language in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem of Givat Ram cam ...

and provides consultation on Hebrew Biological terms. He is also a member of the Committee on the Fauna and Flora of Israel in the

Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, based in Jerusalem, was established in 1961 by the State of Israel to foster contact between Israeli scholars in the sciences and humanities and create a think tank for advising the government on res ...

Publications

Prof. Kislev has authored more than 220 academic publications, eleven of them in

Science Magazine ''Science'' is the peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and one of the world's top academic journals. It was first published in 1880, is currently circulated weekly and has a subscrib ...

. Kislev's articles were cited more than 5900 times and he has an h-index of 39.

Selected articles

* Kislev, M.E. 1982. Stem rust of wheat 3300 years old found in Israel. Science 216: 993–994. * Kislev, M.E. 1985. Early Neolithic horsebean from Yiftah'el, Israel. Science 228: 319–320. * Kislev, M.E. 1988. Pinus pinea in agriculture, culture and cult. Forschungen und Berichte zur Vor-und Frühgeschichte in Baden-Württemberg 31: 73–79. * Kislev, M.E. and Bar-Yosef, O. 1988. The legumes: the earliest domesticated plants in the Near East? Current Anthropology 29: 175–179. * Goren-Inbar, N., Feibel, C.S., Verosub, K.L., Melamed, Y., Kislev, M.E., Tchernov, E. and Saragusti, I. 2000. Pleistocene milestones on the out-of-Africa corridor at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel. Science 289: 944–947. * Kislev, M.E., Weiss, E. and Hartmann, A. 2004. Impetus for sowing and the beginning of agriculture: Ground collecting of wild cereals. P.N.A.S. 101(9): 2692–2695. * Nadel, D., Weiss, E., Simchoni, O., Tsatskin, A., Danin, A. and Kislev, M. 2004. Stone Age hut in Israel yields world's oldest evidence of bedding. P.N.A.S. 101 (17): 6821–6826. * Goren-Inbar, N., Alperson, N., Kislev, M.E., Simchoni, O., Melamed, Y., Ben-Nun, A. and Werker, E. 2004. Evidence of Hominin control of fire at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel. Science 304: 725–727. * Weiss, E. and Kislev, M.E. 2004. Plant remains as indicators for economic activity: a case study from Iron Age Ashkelon. Journal of Archaeological Science 31: 1–13. * Kislev, M.E., Hartmann, A. and Galili, E. 2004. Archaeobotanical and archaeoentomological evidence from a well at Atlit-Yam indicates colder, more humid climate on the Israeli coast during the PPNC period. Journal of Archaeological Science 31: 1301–1310. * Kislev, M.E., Hartmann, A. and Bar-Yosef, O. 2006. Early domesticated fig in the Jordan Valley. Science 312: 1372-1374 and 1292. * Weiss, E., Kislev, M.E. and Hartmann, A. 2006. Autonomous cultivation before domestication. Science 312: 1608–1610. * Hartmann, A., Kislev, M.E. and Weiss, E. 2006. How and when was wild wheat domesticated? Science 313: 296. * Kislev, M.E., Hartmann, A. and Bar-Yosef, O. 2006. Response to comment on "Early domesticated fig in the Jordan Valley". Science 314: 1683a * Sallon, S., Solowey, E., Cohen, Y., Korchinsky, R., Egli, M., Woodhatch, I., Simchoni, O. and Kislev, M. 2008. Germination, genetics and growth of an ancient date seed. Science 320: 1464. * Sallon, S., Cohen, R., Egli, I., Solowey, E., Kislev, M. and Simchoni, O. 2008. Response to: Old seeds coming in from the cold. Science 322: 1789–1790. * Melamed, Y., Plitmann, U. and Kislev, M.E. 2008. Vicia peregrina: an edible early Neolithic legume. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17 (suppl. 1): S29-S34. * Weiss, E., Kislev, M.E., Simchoni, O., Nadel, D. and Tschauner, H. 2008. Plant-food preparation area on an Upper Paleolithic brush hut floor at Ohalo II, Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 2400–2414. * Alperson-Afil, N., Sharon, G., Kislev, M., Melamed, Y., Zohar, I., Ashkenazi, S., Rabinovich, R., Biton, R., Werker, E., Hartman, G., Feibel, C. and Goren-Inbar, N. 2009. Spatial patterning revealing hominin behavioral modernity at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel. Science 326: 1677–1680. * Kislev, M.E. 2015. * Infested stored crops in the Iron Age I granary at Tel Hadar. Israel Journal of Plant Sciences 62: 86–97. * Melamed, Y., Kislev, M., Geffen, E., Lev-Yadun, S. and Goren-Inbar, N. 2016. Acheulian fine vegetal dining at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel, 780,000 years ago. P.N.A.S. 113: 14674-14679

English abstracts of selected Hebrew articles

* Kislev, M.E. 1997. Dating the fall of Abi'or cave by the botanical remains. In: Y. Eshel (ed.). Judea and Samaria Research Studies 6: XV-XVI. * Kislev, M.E. 2001. A man plant a seed from a gourd's fruit and it develops into a watermelon (Talmud Yerushalmi, Kilayim 1: 2). BDD 12: 56–57. * Kislev, M. 2005. It's all in the eye of the beholder: reviewing the evaluation of the kezait, the volume of an olive. BDD 16: 95–96. * Melamed, Y. and Kislev, M. 2005. Remains of seeds, fruits and insects from the excavations in the village of ‘En Gedi. ‘Atiqot 49: 139. * Kislev, M. and Simchoni, O. 2007. A proposed explanation for the replacement of חותל by חותם in the Mishnah. Leshonenu 69 (1-2): III. * Kislev, M., Tabak, Y. and Simchoni, O. 2007. Identifying the variety names of fruits in the Rabbinic literature. Leshonenu 69 (3-4): V. * Kislev, M.E., Tabak-Kaniel, Y. and Simchoni, O. 2009. Identifying the plum names דורמסקן and אחון. Leshonenu 71: XII. * Kislev, M.E. and Simchoni, O. 2009. The secret of a good life at Moyat Awad – a road station on the incense road. Judea and Samaria Research Studies 18: VIII. * Kislev, M., Ziv, G. and Simchoni, O. 2009. The measure of Kakotevet Hagasa. BDD 22: 93–94. * Kislev, M.E. and Simchoni, O. 2012. The kashrut of rye matzo. BDD 26: 70–71. * Kislev, M.E. 2014. Can all Israel offer Paschal sacrifices in the limited space of the Holy Temple? BDD 29: 56. * Kislev, M.E. and Simchoni, O. 2017. The kashrut of insects in food. BDD 32: 141–142.

References

External links

Prof. Mordechai Kislev
Bar Ilan University
Interview with Prof. Kislev

Mishpacha ''Mishpacha'' () - Jewish Family Weekly is a Haredi weekly magazine package produced by The Mishpacha Group in both English and Hebrew. History ''Mishpacha'' is one of the four major English-language newspapers and magazines serving the Hared ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kislev, Mordechai Israeli scientists Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment alumni 1937 births Academic staff of Bar-Ilan University Living people Archaeobotanists Kashrut Educators from Haifa