[CPProt.net] Ancient scrolls found in Judean Desert

[MSN CPPnet]

Ancient scrolls found in Judean Desert
July 16, 2005 - 6:24AM

A secretive encounter with a Bedouin robber in a desert valley has led to
what one Israeli archaeologist hailed as one of the most important biblical
finds from the region in half a century.

Professor Chanan Eshel, an archaeologist from Tel Aviv's Bar Ilan
University, said the discovery of two fragments of nearly 2,000 year-old
parchment scroll from the Dead Sea area gave hope to biblical and
archaeological scholars that the Judean Desert could yet yield further
treasure.

"No more scrolls have been found in the Judean Desert since 1965. This
encourages scholars to believe that if they bother to excavate, survey and
climb they will still find things in the Judean desert. The common knowledge
has been that there is nothing left to find there," Eshel said.

The two small pieces of brown animal skin, inscribed in Hebrew with verses
from the Book of Leviticus, are said by Eshel to be from "refugee" caves in
Nachal Arugot, a canyon near the Dead Sea, where Jews hid from the Romans in
the second century.

The scrolls are currently being tested by Israel's Antiquities Authority.

Amir Ganor, head of the Authority's archaeological theft unit, declined
comment.

Recently, several relics bearing inscriptions, including a burial box
purported to belong to Jesus' brother James, were revealed as modern
forgeries.

Archaeologist and Bible scholar Steven Pfann said he had not seen the
fragments.

If authenticated, they would "in general not be doing more than confirming
the character of the material that we have from the southern part of the
Judean wilderness up until today."

But, he added, "what's interesting and exciting is that this is a new
discovery...this is the first time we've seen anything from the south since
the 1960s."

Eshel said he was first shown the fragments last year during a meeting in an
abandoned police station near the Dead Sea.

A Bedouin who had been offered $US20,000 ($A26,660) for the fragments on the
black market wanted an evaluation, an encounter that both excited and
dismayed the archaeologist who has worked in the Judean Desert since 1986.

"I was jealous he had found it, not me. I was also very excited. I didn't
believe I would see them again," said Eshel, who took photographs of the
pieces he believed would shortly be smuggled out of the country.

But in March 2005, he discovered the Bedouin still had the pieces of scroll.
Eshel said he bought them with $US3,000 ($A4,000) provided by Tel Aviv's Bar
Ilan University and subsequently handed them over to the Antiquities
Authority.

"Scholars do not buy antiquities. I did it because i could not see it fall
apart," Eshel said

Eshel said that the fragments constitute the 15th scroll found in the area
from the same period of the Jewish "Bar Kochba" revolt against the Romans,
and the first to be discovered with verses from Leviticus.

More than 1,000 ancient texts - known collectively as the Dead Sea Scrolls -
were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in 11 caves overlooking the western
shores of the Dead Sea.

http://www.theage.com.au/