JERUSALEM (AP) – Israeli archaeologists on Tuesday announced the discovery of dozens of new Dead Sea Scroll fragments with a biblical text found in a desert cave that are believed to have been hidden during a Jewish uprising against Rome nearly 1,900 years old.
The parchment fragments carry lines of Greek text from the books of Zechariah and Nahum and were dated around the 1st century AD based on the style of writing, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority. They are the first new scrolls found in archaeological excavations in the desert south of Jerusalem in 60 years.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of Jewish texts found in desert caves in the West Bank near Qumran in the 1940s and 1950s, date from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD. They include the first known copies of biblical texts and documents outlining the beliefs of a little-known Jewish sect.
The 80 or so new pieces are believed to belong to a set of parchment fragments found at a location in southern Israel known as the “Cave of Horror” – named for the 40 human skeletons found there during excavations in the 1960s – who also carry a Greek surrender of the Twelve Minor Prophets, a book from the Hebrew Bible. The cave is located in a remote gorge about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Jerusalem.
The artifacts were found during an operation in Israel and the occupied West Bank conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority to find scrolls and other artifacts to prevent possible looting. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war, and international law prohibits the removal of cultural property from the occupied territory. The official gave a news conference on Tuesday to reveal the discovery.
The fragments are believed to have been part of a scroll hidden in the cave during the Bar Kochba Uprising, an armed Jewish revolt against Rome during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, between 132 and 136 AD. Coins struck by rebels and arrowheads found in other caves in the region also come from this period.
“We found a textual difference that is unparalleled by any other manuscript, whether in Hebrew or Greek,” said Oren Ableman, a researcher on the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Israel Antiquities Authority. He referred to small variations in the Greek translation of the Hebrew original compared to the Septuagint – a translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek made in Egypt in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC.
“When we think of the biblical text, we think of something very static. It was not static. There are minor differences and some of these differences are important, ”said Joe Uziel, head of the Dead Sea Scrolls unit at the antiquities authority. “Every little piece of information that we can add, we can understand a little better” as the biblical text came in its traditional Hebrew form.
Along with Roman-era artifacts, the exhibition included much older findings of no less importance found during its sweep of more than 500 caves in the desert: the mummified skeleton of a 6,000-year-old child, an immense and complete woven basket from the Neolithic period , estimated at 10,500 years, and dozens of other delicate organic materials preserved in the arid cave climate.
In 1961, Israeli archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni excavated the “Cave of Horror” and his team found nine fragments of parchment belonging to a scroll with texts from the Twelve Minor Prophets in Greek and a piece of Greek papyrus.
Since then, no new text has been found during archaeological excavations, but many have appeared on the black market, apparently looted from caves.
In the past four years, Israeli archaeologists have launched a major campaign to search caves nestled in the steep gorges of the Judean Desert in search of scrolls and other rare artifacts. The goal is to find them before looters disrupt remote sites, destroying strata and archaeological data in search of antiques intended for the black market.
So far, the hunt had found only a handful of pieces of parchment without text.
Amir Ganor, head of the antiquity theft prevention unit, said that since the start of the operation in 2017 there has been virtually no looting of antiques in the Judean Desert, classifying the operation as a success.
“For the first time in 70 years, we were able to stop looters,” he said.