Fragments of Biblical Texts Uncovered in the “Cave of Horror” in the Judean Desert https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/history-ideas/2021/03/fragments-of-biblical-texts-uncovered-in-the-cave-of-horror-in-the-judean-desert/

March 17, 2021 | Amanda Borschel-Dan
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Since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940s, looters have sought to make similar finds in the many caves near in Qumran, leading to a recent push by archaeologists to conduct a thorough expedition in search of ancient artifacts. Investigating a remote cliffside cavern, they recently came across dozens of pieces of two-millennia-old manuscripts. Amanda Borschel-Dan writes:

Most of the newly discovered scroll fragments—the first such finds in 60 years—are Greek translations of the books of Zechariah and Nahum from the Twelve Minor Prophets, and are written in two scribal hands. Only the name of God is written in Hebrew in the texts. The fragments from the prophets have been identified as coming from a larger scroll that was found in the 1950s, in the same “Cave of Horror” in Naḥal Ḥever, which is some 260 feet below a cliff top. According to an Israel Antiquities Authority press release, the cave is “flanked by gorges and can only be reached by rappelling precariously down the sheer cliff.”

Along with the “new” biblical scroll fragments, . . . the team excavated a huge 10,500-year-old perfectly preserved woven basket—the oldest complete basket in the world—and a 6,000-year-old mummified skeleton of a child, tucked into its blanket for a final sleep.

Several of the [nearby] caves offered random finds left behind by Jewish rebels who fled to the caves at the end of the Bar Kokhba Revolt [against Roman rule, around 135 CE], including a cache of coins that were overstruck with Jewish rebels’ symbols such as a harp and a date palm, an array of arrowheads and spearheads, pieces of woven fabric, sandals, and lice combs, which illustrated the everyday items taken by the fleeing Jews.

Read more on Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/bible-scroll-fragments-among-dazzling-artifacts-found-in-dead-sea-cave-of-horror/