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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 18, 2021)
B5 THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2021 Archaeologists discover more Dead Sea Scrolls By ILAN BEN ZION Associated Press JERUSALEM — Israeli archaeologists on Tuesday announced the discovery of dozens of Dead Sea Scroll fragments bear- ing a biblical text found in a desert cave and believed hidden during a Jewish revolt against Rome nearly 1,900 years ago. The fragments of parchment bear lines of Greek text from the books of Zechariah and Nahum and have been dated around the fi rst century based on the writing style, accord- ing to the Israel Antiquities Authority. They are the fi rst new scrolls found in archaeolog- ical excavations in the desert south of Jeru- salem in 60 years. The Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of Jewish texts found in desert caves in the West Bank near Qumran in the 1940s and 1950s, date from the third century B.C. to the fi rst century A.D. They include the earli- est known copies of biblical texts and docu- ments outlining the beliefs of a little under- stood Jewish sect. The roughly 80 new pieces are believed to belong to a set of parchment fragments found in a site in southern Israel known as the “Cave of Horror” — named for the 40 human skeletons found there during excava- tions in the 1960s — that also bear a Greek rendition of the Twelve Minor Prophets, a book in the Hebrew Bible. The cave is located in a remote canyon around 25 miles south of Jerusalem. The artifacts were found during an oper- ation in Israel and the occupied West Bank conducted by the Israel Antiquities Author- ity to fi nd scrolls and other artifacts to pre- vent possible plundering. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war, and international law prohibits the removal of cultural prop- erty from occupied territory. The authority held a news conference Tuesday to unveil the discovery. 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. Coins struck by rebels and arrowheads found in other caves in the region also hail from that period. “We found a textual diff erence that has no parallel with any other manuscript, either in Hebrew or in Greek,” said Oren Able- man, a Dead Sea Scroll researcher with the Israel Antiquities Authority. He referred to slight variations in the Greek rendering of the Hebrew original compared to the Septu- agint — a translation of the Hebrew Bible to Greek made in Egypt in the third and second centuries B.C. “When we think about the biblical text, we think about something very static. It wasn’t static. There are slight diff erences and some of those diff erences are import- ant,” said Joe Uziel, head of the antiquities Sebastian Scheiner/AP Photos TOP: Israel Antiquities Authority conservator Tanya Bitler shows newly discovered Dead Sea Scroll fragments at the Dead Sea Scrolls conservation lab in Jerusalem on Tuesday. LEFT: The Israel Antiquities Authority displays newly discovered Dead Sea Scroll fragments at the Dead Sea Scrolls conservation lab. authority’s Dead Sea Scrolls unit. “Every little piece of information that we can add, we can understand a little bit better” how the Biblical text came into its traditional Hebrew form. Alongside the Roman-era artifacts, the exhibit included far older discoveries of no lesser importance found during its sweep of more than 500 caves in the desert: the 6,000-year-old mummifi ed skeleton of a child, an immense, complete woven basket from the Neolithic period, estimated to be 10,500 years old, and scores of other deli- cate organic materials preserved in caves’ arid climate. In 1961, Israeli archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni excavated the “Cave of Horror” and his team found nine parchment frag- ments belonging to a scroll with texts from the Twelve Minor Prophets in Greek, and a scrap of Greek papyrus. Since then, no new texts have been found during archaeological excavations, but many have turned up on the black market, appar- ently plundered from caves. For the past four years, Israeli archaeol- ogists have launched a major campaign to scour caves nestled in the precipitous can- yons of the Judean Desert in search of scrolls and other rare artifacts. The aim is to fi nd them before plunderers disturb the remote sites, destroying archaeological strata and data in search of antiquities bound for the black market. Until now the hunt had only found a hand- ful of parchment scraps that bore no text. Amir Ganor, head of the antiquities theft prevention unit, said that since the com- mencement of the operation in 2017 there has been virtually no antiquities plundering in the Judean Desert, calling the operation a success. “For the fi rst time in 70 years, we were able to preempt the plunderers,” he said. Classifieds GARAGE SALE SELL YOUR VEHICLE HERE! SEASON IS HERE! If it Drives or Floats... ONLY $ 25 ys for 3 da Call 800.781.3214 to advertise today! classifieds@dailyastorian.com Searching for Employees? 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