A desert cave find includes 1,900-year-old parchment pieces with a biblical verse written in Greek.
Israeli archaeologists announced Tuesday that dozens of Sea Scroll fragments were found with biblical text found in a deserted cave believed to be hidden during a Jewish uprising against nearby Rome. 1,900 years ago.
The finds, preserved by the hot, dry air in the Judean Desert, also include the skeleton of a 6,000-year-old baby, and a fully woven basket dating back 10,500 years the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) said tends to be the oldest in the world.
Scrolls of the Dead Sea, a collection of Jewish texts found in desert caves in the West Bank near Qumran in the 1940s and 50s, dates back to the third century BC to the first century AD. They include the earliest copies of biblical texts and documents that explain the beliefs of a Jewish group that are not understood at all.
It is believed that about 80 new pieces belong to a set of parchment fragments found at a site in southern Israel called the “Cave of Horror” – named for the 40 human skeletons that were excavated discovered there during excavations in the 1960s.
“These are new pieces of the puzzle and we can add them to our bigger picture of time and text,” said Oren Ableman of the Israeli Archaeological Authority’s Dead Sea Scrolls Unit.
“Even though these pieces are small they gave us new information that we didn’t know before.”
Israeli archaeologists announced the discovery of dozens of new Sea Scroll fragments Tuesday [Sebastian Scheiner/AP Photo]
The fragments are believed to have been part of a roll held away in the cave during the Bar Kochba Uprising, a Jewish armed rebellion against Rome during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, between 132 and 136. Coins struck by rebels and arrowheads found in other caves in the area also date from that period.
The cave is located in a remote canyon about 40km (25 miles) south of Jerusalem.
The artefacts were found during an operation in Israel and on the West Bank led by the Israeli Antiquities Authority to find scrolls and other items to prevent predation.
The authority has overseen the survey of more than 100km (65 miles) of cliffs with caves carved or eroded.
Since 2017, teams have been digging down marl and limestone cliffs and using drones to map hundreds of caves and hills. Many were filled with centuries of sand and debris, and about a dozen that were thought to be hiding places were completely dug up.
The aim of the project is to find materials before predators disturb remote sites, destroying archaeological strata and data to find antiquities linked to the black market.
Amir Ganor, head of the anti-theft prevention unit, said since the IAA’s work began antiquities have almost been raided in the Judean Desert.
“For the first time in 70 years, we were able to explode on the predators,” he said.
An Israeli Antiquarian Authority worker displays coins struck by rebels in a Jewish uprising against Rome between 132 and 136 AD [Sebastian Scheiner/AP Photo]
In 1961, Israeli archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni excavated the cave of terror and his team found nine fragments of parchment belonging to a roll with texts from the Twelve Minor Prophets in Greek, and a fragment of Greek papyrus.
Since then, no new texts have been discovered during archaeological excavations, but many have turned up on the black market, apparently looted from caves.
“Every bit of information we can add, we can understand a little better” as the biblical text came into its traditional Hebrew form, said Joe Uziel, head of the anti-authority Sea Dead Scrolls Unit of the antiquities authority .
Along with the Roman material, the find included much older, less important finds: the skeleton of a 6,000-year-old baby, a complete woven basket from the Neolithic period, which is a 10,500-year-old fruit, and scores of other fine organic materials preserved in a cave climate.
Archaeologist Haim Cohen looks at a 10,500-year-old woven basket found during a sweep of more than 500 caves in the desert [Sebastian Scheiner/AP Photo]