Free Republic

On May 12, 1960, archaeologist Yigael Yadin, appearing at the Jerusalem residence of President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, announced the astounding discovery of a cache of 2,000-year-old letters... signed by the legendary Jewish warrior Shimon Bar Kochba, leader of a devastating second-century revolt against Rome, and had been found high up in a cave overlooking the Nahal Hever canyon, west of the Dead Sea. The news was received with great excitement, both internationally and in a State of Israel that was still searching for connections to the ancient Jewish presence in the land. The Bar Kochba letters, which were supplemented by additional...

UHa professor shares ‘Secrets of the Cave of Letters' Oct 29, 2004 - Dr. Richard Freund has spent years exploring sites throughout Israel and the Middle East, seeking ancient Jewish artifacts. In 1999, Freund, director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford, led an expedition to the Cave of the Letters, a site near the Dead Sea Scrolls that had been excavated in 1960 by famed Israel archeologist Yigael Yadin. At that time, Yadin found letters from Bar Kochba, a leader of the Jewish rebellion against the Romans during the second century CE. But...