JERUSALEM (AP) – Israeli archaeologists on Tuesday announced the discovery of dozens of new fragments of the Dead Sea Scroll with Biblical text found in a desert cave and believed to have been hidden during a Jewish uprising against Rome nearly 1,900 years ago.
The fragments of parchment bear lines of Greek text from the books of Zechariah and Nahum and are radiocarbon dated to the 2nd century AD, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority. They are the first new scrolls found in 60 years from archaeological digs in the desert south of Jerusalem.
The new pieces are believed to belong to a set of parchment fragments found at a site known as ‘The Cave of Horror’ – named after the 40 human skeletons found there during excavations in the 1960s – which also has a Greek rendition of the Twelve Minor. Prophets. The cave is located in a remote gorge in the Judean Desert south of Jerusalem.
The fragments are believed to have been stored in the cave during the Bar Kokhba Uprising, an armed Jewish revolt against Rome during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, between AD 132 and 136.
The artifacts were found during an operation by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the Judean Desert to find scrolls and other artifacts to prevent possible looting. The authority held a press conference on Tuesday to reveal the discovery.
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. beliefs of a little understood Jewish sect.