What was the sycomore
of the ancients?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
September 6, 2002
In the Old Testament, Amaziah, a priest, accuses Amos of conspiracy against the royal house of Israel. "Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: And the Lord took me...." (Amos 7: 14, 15 KJV)
The sycomore of the Bible was a fig (Ficus sycomorus Linnaeus) also called the Egyptian fig. The sycomore grows to 20 meters (60 feet), is tolerant of drought, and native to southern Africa. Sycomores were probably cultivated in Nubia;
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Jacob Under the Fig Tree
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they were certainly revered early in the history of Egypt and planted in pairs at entrances to temples. Along with the olive, sycomores were prized trees in the Levant (lands of the eastern Mediterranean).
First Chronicles 27 lists King David's officers in charge of his property, "And over the olive trees and the sycomore trees that were in the low plains was Baalhanan the Gederite...." (I Chronicles 27: 28 KJV)
In The Herbal (1633) John Gerard mentions that the sycomore was called Ficus Pharaonis, pharaoh's fig and Ficus Aegyptia, Egyptian fig by herbalists. The name, sycomorus was its common name in Rome by way of the ancient Greeks who called the tree sykomoros.
The fruit of the fig tree are technically its achenes, hard shelled fruit each surrounding a seed. The achenes are sheltered within a sweet, fleshy receptacle. The fig is unique, there is no other 'fruit' like it. A fig was called a sykon by the Greeks. Hence, the botanical term for a fig is a syconium (pl. syconia).
Albion College in conjunction with Texas A & M has a photograph of fresh figs showing the achenes inside the fleshy receptacle, the syconium. To view the photograph, click on the link:
http://www.albion.edu/plants/ficufr.htm
Peter v. Sengbusch with the Faculty of Biology, University of Hamburg has five superb photographs of the sycomore, Ficus sycomorus taken in its native habitat in Africa. To view his photographs, click on the link:
Click here to view the photographs
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