New Dead Sea Scrolls?

Understanding an Exciting New Find of Ancient Books of Tanach in a Cave in the Judean Desert

New Dead Sea ScrollsSince the first Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, there has been a constant race between Bedouin antiquities hunters and archaeologists. This time the archaeologists won, and the prize was well worth the effort. In about 2002, numerous Dead Sea Scrolls fragments started to appear on the antiquities market. Although we now know that these were all forged, at the time it was believed that some of them were being pillaged by Bedouins from caves in the Judean Desert. There had been a thorough search, conducted by archaeologists, soldiers and (yes!) Bedouins, of much of the Judean Desert and the area around Jericho when the Oslo Accords went into effect in 1995. That search had turned up some documents brought to caves on the shore of the Dead Sea by refugees during the Bar Kochba Revolt against Rome in 132-5 CE. But in 2017, in order to prevent the pillaging of antiquities, another operation was launched by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) to survey all the caves in the Judean Desert and to excavate those that held promise for the recovery of antiquities.

Read more at Ami Magazine.

 

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