DEAD SEA MOLES!
Academics burrowing into caves find biblical scroll... and a basket from 10,500 years ago
DOZENS of fragments of biblical scroll have been found in an archaeology operation that also unearthed what is said to be the world’s oldest basket.
Scientists discovered more than 20 pieces of parchment after abseiling 260ft down the side of a gorge into a location near the Dead Sea known as the Cave of Horror.
The fragments are from a scroll believed to have been hidden during a Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire nearly 1,900 years ago and bear lines of text from the
‘Suffocating thick dust’
Hebrew bible. Experts say it is the most important biblical find in more than half a century.
A 6,000-year-old mummified skeleton of a child, tucked in a blanket, was also found in the cave.
The complete woven basket, from a cave 25 miles away, has been carbon-dated to 10,500 years ago, some 1,000 years before the first known pottery vessels.
The original Dead Sea Scrolls – the earliest known copies of biblical texts, dating from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD – were found by Bedouin shepherds in desert caves near Qumran in the 1940s and 1950s.
The latest fragments have been identified as coming from a scroll found in the 1950s in the Cave of Horror – so named because 40 human skeletons were previously discovered there.
Most of the text is in ancient Greek, a widely used language at the time, but the word ‘Lord’ appears in ancient Hebrew.
The 24-gallon basket, well preserved by the arid Judean Desert climate, was discovered by youth volunteers in one of the Murabba ’at Caves near Qumran.
The finds – which also included coins, arrowheads, spearheads, pieces of woven fabric, sandals and lice combs – were announced yesterday by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) following an operation begun in 2017 to search caves in the Judean Desert following reports of plundering.
Carbon dating shows the scroll fragments are from the 2nd century AD. They are thought to have been stashed away in an uprising against Rome during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, between AD132 and 136. Academics say the 11 lines they have so far reconstructed show differences between early Greek translations and the original Hebrew texts.
IAA director Israel Hasson said: ‘The desert team showed exceptional courage, dedication and devotion to purpose, rappelling [abseiling] down to caves... digging and sifting through them, enduring thick and suffocating dust, and returning with gifts of immeasurable worth for mankind.’