diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/xcontent/DateFieldMapper.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/xcontent/DateFieldMapper.java
index 92b30ac51bf..9f0820a1921 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/xcontent/DateFieldMapper.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/xcontent/DateFieldMapper.java
@@ -177,20 +177,33 @@ public class DateFieldMapper extends NumberFieldMapper<Long> {
     }
 
     @Override protected Fieldable parseCreateField(ParseContext context) throws IOException {
-        String dateAsString;
+        String dateAsString = null;
+        long value = -1;
         if (context.externalValueSet()) {
-            dateAsString = (String) context.externalValue();
-            if (dateAsString == null) {
-                dateAsString = nullValue;
+            Object externalValue = context.externalValue();
+            if (externalValue instanceof Number) {
+                value = ((Number) externalValue).longValue();
+            } else {
+                dateAsString = (String) externalValue;
+                if (dateAsString == null) {
+                    dateAsString = nullValue;
+                }
             }
         } else {
-            if (context.parser().currentToken() == XContentParser.Token.VALUE_NULL) {
+            XContentParser.Token token = context.parser().currentToken();
+            if (token == XContentParser.Token.VALUE_NULL) {
                 dateAsString = nullValue;
+            } else if (token == XContentParser.Token.VALUE_NUMBER) {
+                value = context.parser().longValue();
             } else {
                 dateAsString = context.parser().text();
             }
         }
 
+        if (value != -1) {
+            return new LongFieldMapper.CustomLongNumericField(this, value);
+        }
+
         if (dateAsString == null) {
             return null;
         }
@@ -198,7 +211,7 @@ public class DateFieldMapper extends NumberFieldMapper<Long> {
             context.allEntries().addText(names.fullName(), dateAsString, boost);
         }
 
-        final long value = parseStringValue(dateAsString);
+        value = parseStringValue(dateAsString);
         return new LongFieldMapper.CustomLongNumericField(this, value);
     }
 
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/xcontent/date/SimpleDateMappingTests.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/xcontent/date/SimpleDateMappingTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a720561e3e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/xcontent/date/SimpleDateMappingTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elastic Search and Shay Banon under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership. Elastic Search licenses this
+ * file to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.xcontent.date;
+
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentFactory;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.ParsedDocument;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.xcontent.MapperTests;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.xcontent.XContentDocumentMapper;
+import org.testng.annotations.Test;
+
+import static org.hamcrest.MatcherAssert.*;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.*;
+
+@Test
+public class SimpleDateMappingTests {
+
+    @Test public void testTimestampAsDate() throws Exception {
+        String mapping = XContentFactory.jsonBuilder().startObject().startObject("type")
+                .startObject("properties").startObject("date_field").field("type", "date").endObject().endObject()
+                .endObject().endObject().string();
+
+        XContentDocumentMapper defaultMapper = MapperTests.newParser().parse(mapping);
+
+        long value = System.currentTimeMillis();
+        ParsedDocument doc = defaultMapper.parse("type", "1", XContentFactory.jsonBuilder()
+                .startObject()
+                .field("date_field", value)
+                .endObject()
+                .copiedBytes());
+
+        assertThat(doc.doc().getFieldable("date_field").tokenStreamValue(), notNullValue());
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file