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The existence of the cave has been known for several decades. It got its macabre name due to the 40 ancient skeletons that were discovered there in the 1960s. The skeletons are people who starved to death during the Bar Kokhba uprising that took place in 132-135, when Jews in the region revolted. against the Roman Empire. The uprising was crushed and some ancient historians claimed that more than 500,000 Jews had been killed during it, and many others had been deported from the region.
The discovered biblical manuscript, written in Greek, also dates back to the time of the Bar Kokhba uprising and contains excerpts from the books of Zacharias and Nahum, according to a report from the Israel Antiquities Service (IAA). In the Hebrew Bible, it is part of the book of the 12 minor prophets.
“Here are the things you need to do. Speak the truth to each other, judge your gates with truth and perfect justice, do not trap each other in your heart, and do not harbor the crooked oath, for all these things I hate, it is the word of the Lord “( Zechariah 8: 16-17) Part of the manuscript The IAA states that this is the first time in 60 years that a biblical manuscript has been found in scientific archaeological excavations, in contrast to cases in which the manuscripts have been looted or excavated in another unscientific way.
Some media outlets have already started announcing that the find is the new Dead Sea Manuscript, the so-called thousands of roughly 900 text fragments found in caves near the Kumran area of the West Bank in the 1950s and 1960s. However, The Cave of Horror is nowhere near Kumran, and the IAA has named the latest find a new “biblical manuscript,” not a Dead Sea manuscript.
Since 2017 the IAA has been running a campaign to find more manuscripts in the caves of the Judean desert. Theft is a major problem in the region, and authorities are concerned that in some cases thieves are faster than archaeologists. As part of this campaign, scientists working for the government are re-excavating caves that have been previously studied by archaeologists.
“The newly discovered fragments of the manuscripts are a great reminder to the state. Resources must be available to complete this historical operation. We must ensure that all the data that has not yet been discovered in the caves has been collected before the thieves were committed, ”Israeli Hasson, IAA director, said in a statement.
In addition to the manuscript of the Bible, archaeologists have found a mummified child in the same cave; the remains are 6,000 years old. According to the CT scan of the skeleton, the mummified boy, probably a girl who died when she was between 6 and 12 years old, was buried in a shallow pit. Furthermore, a treasure trove of coins was found in the same cave. Jewish symbols engraved on the coins include a harp and a date palm. The coins also date back to the Bar Kokhba uprising.
Additionally, a bag about 10,500 years old was found in a separate cave. The IAA says it appears to be the oldest bag in the world that has all survived.
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