Identifying the Plum Names דורמסקן and אחון / לזיהוי שמות השזיפים דורמסקן ואחון

• Published in: לשוננו 2009-03, Vol.עא (א/ב), p.237-247
• Main Authors: כסלו, מרדכי א', תבק, יונית, שמחוני, אורית, Kislev, Mordechai E., Tabak, Yonit, Simchoni, Orit
• Format: Article
• Language: Hebrew
• Subjects: Remarks and Replies / הערות ותגוברת
• ISSN: 0334-3626

We propose that the word דורמסקן used by the rabbis is a synonym for the Roman Damascena. It is similar to the English Damson, which is used for varieties of the cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera). Beginning in the first century BCE or CE, the original dried fruits of דורמסקן—Damascena were shipped as a medicinal product from Damascus across the Roman Empire, from the land of Israel in the east to Italy in the west. Only later were attempts made to produce them locally. Historical evidence enables the dating of the transitional stage: in Italy "many years" before 77 CE, and in the land of Israel during the time of Rabbi Meir. Attempts to dry fruits from local produce did not succeed in either country, perhaps because new plants were grown from the seeds of imported ones, which interfered with their ability to be dried. In Syria the plant was propagated from shoots. We therefore conclude that the twenty cherry-plum stones found at Masada are the remains of dried fruits — דורמסקן — that were imported from Damascus and used for treatment of the digestive system, as are the prunes of the European plum today. We suggest that דורמסקן is identical to the cherry plum, both because of the stone morphology as well as the linguistic similarity between דורמסקן and Damascena. We also suggest that the name for the fruit called אחון and חוח by the rabbis was derived from the Semitic name of the local wild bear's plum (Prunus ursine) and that, from the Roman period on, these names were used to refer to the European plum (P. domestica).