Precious scroll found, but experts remain cautious

By Danielle Haas in Jerusalem
July 19, 2005


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.

Chanan Eshel, an archaeologist at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, said the discovery of two fragments of nearly 2000-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," Professor Eshel said.

He said the two small pieces of brown animal skin, inscribed in Hebrew with verses from the Book of Leviticus, are 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 being tested by Israel's Antiquities Authority. Amir Ganor, head of the authority's archaeological theft unit, declined to comment on the find.

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

Steven Pfann, an archaeologist and Bible scholar, 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."

Professor 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 ($26,660) for the fragments on the black market wanted an evaluation, an encounter that 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 Professor Eshel, who took photographs of the pieces he believed would shortly be smuggled out of the country.

However, in March 2005 he discovered the Bedouin still had the pieces of scroll. Professor Eshel said he bought them with $US3000 provided by Bar Ilan University and then handed them over to the Antiquities Authority.

"Scholars do not buy antiquities. I did it because I could not see it fall apart," he said
Professor Eshel said the fragments constitute the 15th scroll found in the area from the same period of the Jewish Bar-Kokhba revolt against the Romans, and the first to have been discovered with verses from Leviticus.

More than 1000 ancient texts - the Dead Sea Scrolls - were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in 11 caves overlooking the western shores of the Dead Sea.

Associated Press

http://smh.com.au/news/world/precious-scroll-found-but-experts-remain-cautious/2005/07/18/1121538920637.html