New Dead Sea Scrolls Found in Israel Cave, First Major Discovery in 60 Years
REPORT: Fragments of parchment are now reportedly confirmed to be the first new scrolls found by archeologists in the Israeli desert in over 60 years.
Israeli archeologists announced on Tuesday that they had discovered dozens of NEW Dead Sea scroll fragments bearing a biblical text found in a desert cave that is believed to have been hidden during a Jewish revolt nearly 2,000 years ago.
The fragments reportedly have Greek text from the books of Nahum and Zechariah and have been dated to approximately the 1st century AD — experts were able to determine the date based on the writing style.
These are the first new scrolls found during excavations in the desert south of Jerusalem in over 60 years time.
The Dead Sea scrolls, are a collection of Jewish texts found in desert caves in the West Bank near Qumran in the 1940s and 1950s, and date from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD.
They’re extremely important and include the earliest known copies of biblical texts and documents outlining the beliefs of a Jewish sect.
The roughly 80 new pieces of fragments are believed to have come from what is known as the “Cave of Horror” — which was named after the 40 some human skeletons that were found during excavations in the 1960s. The cave is located in a canyon around 40 KM south of Israel’s Capital, Jerusalem.
The authority held a news conference Tuesday to unveil the monumental discovery.
NBC News published a 90 second video outlining the discoveries found:
The fragments are believed to have been part of a scroll 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.
For the past four years, Israeli archeologists have launched a major campaign to scour caves nestled in the precipitous canyons of the Judean Desert in search of scrolls and other rare artifacts.
Until now the hunt had only found a handful of parchment scraps that bore no text.