Posted on 09/08/2023 5:44:08 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Three of the 1,900-year-old weapons, whose iron blades are 60-65cm long (24-26in), were still in wooden scabbards.
They were found in a near-inaccessible crevice by a team photographing an ancient inscription on a stalactite.
Archaeologists believe the swords were hidden by Judean rebels after they were seized from the Roman army as booty...
Fifty years ago, a stalactite with an incomplete ink inscription written in ancient Hebrew script was found in a small cave high on a cliff above the Dead Sea, north of the En Gedi oasis in eastern Israel.
Archaeologist Dr Asaf Gayer of Ariel University, geologist Boaz Langford of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and photographer Shai Halevi of the IAA recently went to the cave with the aim of using multispectral photography to decipher parts of the inscription not visible to the naked eye.
While on the upper level of the cave, Dr Gayer spotted a well-preserved Roman pilum, or javelin, in a narrow crevice. He also found worked wood in a nearby niche that turned out to be parts of the swords' scabbards.
The researchers reported the discovery and returned with another team to carry out a survey of all the crevices in the cave, during which the swords were uncovered...
The three swords that were still in their wooden scabbards were identified as Roman spatha, or long swords, while the fourth, shorter weapon was identified as a ring-pommel sword.
They had well-fashioned handles made of wood or metal.
Leather strips and pieces of wood and metal belonging to them were also found...
They were then purposefully hidden for reuse, possibly during the second major Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire in Judea - the Bar Kochba Revolt (132AD-135AD).
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
I wish they had more pictures of the archaeologists. I specifically went to the site to see the archaeologists.
Lol- no wonder they went out of business- they refused to carry Mick lundel’s Gaza cotton sheets
Were they hidden by the People’s Front of Judea or by the Judean People’s Front?
Were they hidden by the People’s Front of Judea or by the Judean People’s Front?
Splitter!
Romanus
Eaunt
Domus.
Correct. They were used primarily as stabbing weapons, not slashing weapons
Did Roman medics perform short arm inspections?
Only the ones with short ribs
“SPLITTER!”
Beat me to it!
I love the stuff they find around the Dead Sea...like the SCROLLS.
Awesome.
Certe! After all, apart from sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the freshwater system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
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