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Virtual unwrapping software has revealed verses from the Book of Leviticus in a charred parchment scroll, making it the oldest biblical text after the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced on Monday. Found 45 years ago inside the Holy Ark of the synagogue at Ein Gedi, on the western shore of the Dead Sea, the 2.7-inch scroll was dated by C14 analysis to about 500 AD. “This is the first time in any archaeological excavation that a Torah scroll was found in a synagogue, particularly inside a Holy Ark,” the IAA said in a statement. ... To...

Scholar Blocks Reports of Old Excavations In the late 1960s the ancient synagogue at Ein Gedi, on the shore of the Dead Sea, was excavated by Israeli archaeologist Dan Barag, a student of the great Nahman Avigad. The finds were extraordinary—two well-preserved mosaic floors on top of one another in the main room, a large mosaic inscription in the entrance corridor, a hoard of Byzantine coins, a disc from a roll of the Torah, a water basin for washing hands and a magnificent bronze menorah. The only problem is that a report on the excavation has never been written—not even...

Bedouin wanders across Biblical manuscript Fragments of a Biblical manuscript dating back to the last Jewish revolt against Roman rule in 135 AD Judaea, have been uncovered near the Dead Sea. After four decades with a dearth of new finds, archaeologists had resigned themselves to believing the desert caves in the modern-day West Bank had already yielded all their secrets from the Roman era. "It's simply sensational, a dream come true," archaeology professor Hanan Eshel, a Biblical specialist at Israel's Bar Ilan University, said. For the past 20 years, he has scoured the Judaean desert around the Dead Sea, overturning...

Second-century artifacts found From correspondents in Jerusalem, Israel November 19, 2002 A cave survey in Israel's Judean Desert has found papyrus scrolls, coins and arrow heads from the time of the Jewish rebellion against the Romans in the second century, archaeologists said. The scrolls, while believed to be less significant than the Dead Sea Scrolls found in the region in 1947, will shed light on the time of the revolt led by Simon Bar Kochba, said Zvika Tzuk, an archaeologist for the National Parks Authority. The artifacts were found in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, near the Dead Sea, by...

For his part, Peleg believes Qumran went through several distinct stages. As the morning heat mounts, he leads me up a steep ridge above the site, where a channel hewn into the rock brought water into the settlement. From our high perch, he points out the foundations of a massive tower that once commanded a fine view of the sea to the east toward today's Jordan. "Qumran was a military post around 100 B.C.," he says. "We are one day from Jerusalem, and it fortified the northeast shore of the Dead Sea." Other forts from this era are scattered among...

Archeologists claim Essenes never wrote Dead Sea Scrolls By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz CorrespondentLast Update: 30/07/2004 09:23 Located on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, Qumran is famous throughout the world as the place where the Essenes, who have been widely described in studies, conferences and exhibitions as a type of Jewish "monk," are said to have lived and written the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, based on findings soon to be published, Israeli archaeologists now argue that Qumran "lacks any uniqueness." The latest research joins a growing school of thought attempting to explode the "Qumran myth" by stating that not...

Rare artifacts from the Shivat Zion ("Return of Zion") era, after the destruction of the First Temple, were discovered last week in a cave in the Ein Gedi region. The discovery of the items, dating back to the sixth century B.C.E., was announced Thursday by the Nature and National Parks Protection Authority. For the past three years the Archaeology Institute at Bar-Ilan University (BIU) and the Cave Research Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have been conducting an archaeological survey of the cliffs of the Judean Desert. BIU's Prof. Hanan Eshel is in charge of the project. A week...

A wallet containing nine coins from the period of Bar Kochva was discovered in a small cave at the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve on the eastern periphery of the Judean Desert. Thrilled archaeologists reported that amongst the find, three coins were minted by Jewish authorities from the period of Bar Kochva, One of the coins is made of silver and weighs 12 grams. This is only the second coin of its type discovered in Israel so far, reports Israel Radio. The discovery was made by members of Bar Ilan University's Archaeology Institute in cooperation with researchers from the center for...