Israeli archaeologists have revealed that they have found pieces of manuscripts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. It concerns – in shreds and larger fragments – Biblical texts of the prophets Zechariah and Nahum.
The documents lay in caves in the Judean Desert, which lies by the Dead Sea in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The texts are generally in Ancient Greek, but the name of God is always in an old version of Hebrew.
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The Qumran Institute of the University of Groningen has been researching about a thousand original manuscripts that were found in the caves between 1947 and 1956 for years. This discovery was considered one of the most important of the 20th century.
Professor Mladen Popović speaks to RTL Nieuws of ‘an important find’. “For the people who doubt the authenticity of the documents: this is real,” he says.
Nep fragments
In recent years, a trade in fake fragments has started. Up to hundreds of thousands of euros are asked for. “Small scraps are already worth a lot of money. So it is good that something has now been found that is real”, says Popović.
Robbers also search the area for valuables. To beat that off, Israeli archaeologists started to search the caves five years ago.
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The usually rolled up parchment documents were hidden in caves during a Jewish revolt against the Romans in the second century AD.
At that time, Jews had to flee for their lives, when the Roman legions were rioting. Popović: “They took everything of value and looked for safety in the caves. It was dramatic. The Romans sat on top of the cliffs in some places to keep an eye on things. People had nowhere to go.”
Coiled
Skeletons of people who probably died of hunger and thirst have also been found in the caves. This also included jewelry, keys and manuscripts. “Usually they have been found just like that, only the Bedouin who discovered the first cave in 1947 said they had found them rolled up in linen or pitchers.”
Popović and his team were themselves with other colleagues in some of those caves in 2019. “That is not easy, climb to reach the cave and then climb even further in the pitch dark in a cave. Some caves have also collapsed.”
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According to the Israeli authorities, in addition to parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, coins, a 6,000-year-old skeleton and “the oldest basket in the world” have now been found. The basket must be at least 10,000 years old.
Hope for new find
Scientifically, the latest find of Dead Sea Scrolls does not bring so many new insights, says the professor. “Nothing has been found about what we do not know yet. The hope is that new texts will be found, and larger manuscripts. That could turn everything upside down, just as with the first discoveries in the 1940s and 1950s. . “
The Israeli archaeologists want to continue the search operation in the desert area. They call for even more time and money to be spent on the search: only half of the targeted desert area has actually been searched, and there are many more caves that rovers are interested in.
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