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This tree is apparently 9,550 years old; well, more appropriately, not the tree itself, but the root system, which has obviously supported several different incarnations of this tree.

However, since our average lifespan is far south of 100 years, we can’t really gain an appropriate perspective on how old this rather well-worn Norway Spruce actually is. The following statistics may help. At 9,950 years old, this tree was:

• “Born” at the end of the last ice age.
• 4,450 years old when the Bristlecone Pines in California had that new-car smell. The Bristlecones were previously accepted to be the oldest living things.
• 4,972 years old when the Great Pyramid at Giza was completed, 2500 B.C./B.C.E.
• 6,585 years old when the first temple (Solomon’s) of Israel was completed in 957 B.C.E.
• 6,789 years old when the Roman Empire was founded in 753 B.C./B.C.E.
• 8,018 years old when Rome was sacked in 476 A.D./C.E.
• 9,035 years old when Columbus set out on his (everybody thought) doomed voyage of 1492
• 9,347 years old when Nelson was making a name for himself at Trafalgar in 1805, and
• 9,487 years old when the first atomic bombs were detonated in 1945

To be perfectly clear, this tree is older than recorded human history, which only reaches as far back as 2800 B.C.E. The oldest person on the planet–124-year old Zabani Khakimova of Chechnya– has been in existence for 1.29 percent of this tree’s lifespan. Yikes.

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