Israeli experts discover new Dead Sea scrolls for first time in 60 years

Credit: Sebastian Scheiner /AP

Israeli archaeologists have unearthed more than 20 fragments of 2,000-year-old biblical texts, known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, from a cave in the Judean Desert, which were believed hidden during a Jewish revolt against Rome nearly 1,900 years ago.

The fragments bear Greek translations from the Old Testament Books of Zechariah and Nahum, and only the name of God is written in Hebrew in the texts. The pieces of parchment have been carbon dated to the 2nd century AD, the team of archaeologists said. 

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. They include the earliest known copies of biblical texts and documents outlining the beliefs of a little understood Jewish sect, the  Essenes.

The Israel Antiques Authority has been trying to salvage artefacts from the Judean Desert since 2017 because of the “rampant looting” that was sparked when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by Bedouin shepherds over 70 years ago.

“The desert team showed exceptional courage, dedication and devotion to purpose, rappelling down to caves located between heaven and earth, digging and sifting through them, enduring thick and suffocating dust, and returning with gifts of immeasurable worth for mankind,” said Israel Hasson, Israel Antiquities Authority’s director.

Archaeologist Haim Cohen shows a 10,500-year-old basket dating back to the Neolithic period that was unearthed in Murabaat Cave in the Judean Desert

Credit: MENAHEM KAHANA /AFP

Recently-discovered ancient coins from the Bar Kochba Jewish revolt period dating back to 132136 CE

Credit: MENAHEM KAHANA /AFP

The "Cave of Horror" in Nahal Haver is “flanked by gorges and can only be reached by rappelling precariously down the sheer cliff,” the IAA said in a press release. The cave is thought to have earned its name from the 40 human skeletons that were found there during excavations in the 1960s.

Found in clumps, rolled up in the ‘Cave of Horror’, the fragments are believed to have been stashed away in the cave during the Bar Kochba Revolt, an armed Jewish uprising against Rome during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, between 132 and 136 AD.

Alongside the fragments, the archaeologists also found a 6,000-year-old skeleton of a child mummified in a piece of cloth and a 10,500-year-old large woven basket, which specialists believe could be the oldest complete basket in the world.

Based on a CT scan conducted on the skeleton by Tel Aviv University School of Medicine, the child is thought to be between six and twelve years old, Times of Israel reported.

“Due to the arid conditions in the cave, the child was naturally mummified. The cloth and other organic materials, including hair and even skin and tendons, were likewise preserved,” IAA’s Ronit Lupu told the newspaper.