Who says palm seeds have to be fresh for germinating. This nice story is about a date palm seed (Phoenix dactylifera) discovered during archaeological excavations at King Herod's palace on Mount Masada that is 2000 years old and that started germinating after careful preparation. The article has been written two years ago and everybody is curious about the sex of this little Phoenix (very matching genus name in this incident!). Israel's dates were already a famous product in ancient times (until the forced displacement of the jews) and it would be exciting to re-establish this old plant family. (Here's a more recent Wikipedia article.)