popular ancient fruit, now extinct

[ancientfruitseeker]

I read an article about a popular ancient fruit that scholars had found documentation of, that became extinct due to overcropping. Ancient reference to it put the fruit in high regard as the most delicious and sought after fruit available at the time - the demand eventually driving the species to extinction.
After a thorough online search, I cannot find any more information about this.
Can someone please help me?
I believe the fruit originated from Southern Europe (mediterranean area) or possibly North Africa/Middle East region.
I understood that the fruit was sweet and somewhat tropical, although this may not be correct.

[Melanie]

I think you mean Silphium

www.sylphium.com/html/plant_silphium.php

[ancientfruitseeker]

Thanks Melanie

yes this is one possibility I came across in my research. However, I distinctly remember something about it being a fruit, sweet, somewhat tropical. Which Sylphium is not.

[Peter]

Not what you're looking for as it is not really a fruit (although some call it a fruit), it is not discovered by documentation, and did not became extinct by overcropping: the Judean date palm, a cultivar of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera). It was thought to have become extinct sometime around CE 150 or CE 500. Seeds were found at the historic fortress of Masada near the Dead Sea, where 960 Jewish zealots chose suicide over capture by the Romans in 73 A.D. The Judean date palm is apparently praised in the Bible and one of the most important exports of ancient Israel. It was pictured on coins and it was of very important for the economy, for ceremonial reasons and also for medicinal reasons. In 2005, the preserved 2,000-year-old seed sprouted, making it the oldest known human-assisted germination of a seed.