DEBKAfile
The first Biblical scroll fragments to be discovered in 60 years are among the awesome relics unearthed in Israeli Antiquities Authority excavations in the most remote caves of the forbidding Judean Desert. More than a score of 2,000-year-old Greek translations of the books of Zechariah and Nachum were discovered with only the name of God written in Hebrew, as well as a 10,500-year-old woven basket and the 6,000year-old, mummified skeleton of a six-year-old child.
The expedition to uncover the secrets of the ancient desert was launched in 2017. After all efforts to stop the rampant looting of priceless sites, fired up by a Bedouin shepherd’s sensational discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls 70 years ago at Qumran, the Antiquities Authority mounted an inter-departmental, national project to beat the robbers at their own game. Since then, expeditions have exhaustively investigated every nook and cranny of this untamed wilderness.
Judaean Desert Dig Yields fragments of Biblical Scroll, Millennia-Old Child s Skeleton, and World s Oldest Basket | The Jewish Press - JewishPress com | David Israel | 3 Nisan 5781 – March 16, 2021
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How Dead Sea Scrolls fragments were found three times
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Amanda Borschel-Dan is The Times of Israel s Jewish World and Archaeology editor.
Archaeologists Hagay Hamer and Oriah Amichai sieving finds at the entrance to the Cave of Horror. (Eitan Klein, Israel Antiquities Authority)
Rappelling to the Cave of the Skulls. (Yoli Schwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority)
Excavations in Muraba‘at Cave. (Yoli Schwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority)
Excavations at Qumran. (Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority)
Dozens of youths from pre-military preparatory programs participated in the excavations. (Yaniv Berman, Israel Antiquities Authority)
The discovery of the 10,500-year-old basket by preparatory program students. (Yaniv Berman, Israel Antiquities Authority)
The basket as found in Muraba‘at Cave. (Yoli Schwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority)