Israeli archaeologists have unearthed two dozen pieces of Dead Sea Scrolls from a remote cave in the Judean Desert, the first such discovery in more than half a century.
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said in a statement that, for the first time in nearly 20 years, archeological excavations have uncovered fragments of Bible scrolls.
More than 20 pieces of parchment were found after teams descended an 80-meter cliff and whipped the cave’s Horfascher, allegedly due to its obscure position, and 40 skeletons of women, men and children were found during excavations in the 1960s.
Jewish rebels are believed to have been hiding south of the valley of Jerusalem two thousand years ago to escape Roman progress. Between AD132 and AD136, fragments of the Hebrew Bible may have been thrown into a cave during the Jewish Rebellion against the Roman Emperor Hadrian.
The IAA said that the scrolls it found were Greek translations of the books of Zechariah and Nahum from the book of the Twelve Minor Prophets, and that they were radiocarbonated until the second century AD. God’s name is written in Hebrew.
One piece reads: “You have to do this: speak the truth to one another, give true and perfect justice at your door.”
After years of digging into caves and rocks, the authority said it had found a six-thousand-year-old human skeleton and a basket over a period of more than 10,000 years.
The authority began operations in 2017 following reports of a robbery.
Israel Hassan, director of the IAA, said the findings for allocating more resources to continue the project were a “wake-up call” and said he had only surveyed half the rocks so far.
“We must ensure that all the data that has not yet been discovered in the cave is recovered before the robbers do it. Some things are out of value, “said Hassan.
The divisions of Dig took place in the occupied West Bank, part of the Palestinian territories, which is a common practice in Israel that has led to controversy. The IAA coordinated with the Ministry of Defense, which runs the business.
The original Dead Sea Scroll, a collection of Jewish texts, was also found in desert caves on the west coast. However, they were discovered by nomadic Bedouin shepherds in the 1940s and 1950s.
Those texts include parts of the Hebrew Bible that were 1,000 years older than the earlier known copy and revolutionized the understanding of Judaism from which early Christianity originated.
