Over 60 years after the first excavations at Qumran, researchers from Hebrew University said Wednesday that they identified a twelfth cave near Qumran they believe contained Dead Sea Scrolls until it was plundered in the middle of the 20th century.

The latest excavation was conducted by Hebrew University and the Israel Antiquities Authority under the auspices of the IDF’s Civil Administration.

It yielded no new scrolls, but archaeologists found a small scrap of parchment in a jar and a collection of at least seven storage jugs identical to those found in the other Qumran caves.

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Altogether there was “no doubt we have a new scroll cave,” Oren Gutfeld, head archaeologist from the dig, told The Times of Israel.

“Only the scrolls themselves are not there.”

The bit of parchment and other organic remains have been dated to the first century CE, when the community at Qumran was active during the twilight of the Second Temple period.

Pickaxes from the 1940s, a smoking gun from the Bedouin plunderers who dug in the cave, were found along with the ancient remains.

The dig in the cliffs west of Qumran, situated over the Green Line in the West Bank, was headed by Hebrew University’s Oren Gutfeld and Ahiad Ovadia with the collaboration of Randall Price and students from Virginia’s Liberty University.

“This exciting excavation is the closest we’ve come to discovering new Dead Sea Scrolls in 60 years,” Gutfeld said. “Until now, it was accepted that Dead Sea Scrolls were found only in 11 caves at Qumran, but now there is no doubt that this is the twelfth cave.”

At the same time, Gutfeld said, the cave’s association with the Dead Sea Scrolls means “we can no longer be certain that the original locations (Caves 1 through 11) attributed to the Dead Sea Scrolls that reached the market via the Bedouins are accurate.”

The first batch of ancient scrolls plundered from caves near the shores of the Dead Sea were purchased by Israeli scholars from the black market in 1947, and additional texts surfaced in the years following in excavations in the Jordanian-held West Bank and for sale on the black market. After Israel captured the West Bank in 1967, many of the scrolls stored in the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem were transferred to the Israel Museum.

Altogether, the nearly 1,000 ancient Jewish texts dated to the Second Temple period comprise a vast corpus of historical and religious documents that include the earliest known copies of biblical texts.

Roughly a quarter of the manuscripts are made up of material belonging to the Hebrew Bible, while another quarter detail the Qumran community’s unique philosophy.

The various scrolls and scroll fragments are identified by the cave they were believed to be stored in over the centuries. The new cave’s discovery shakes things up.

“How can we know for sure that they only came from 11 caves? For sure there were 12 caves, and maybe more,” Gutfeld said.

Among the other finds discovered in the cavern, now designated Q12 to denote its inclusion in the Qumran cave complex, were a leather strap for binding scrolls and a cloth for wrapping them, the university said in a statement announcing the find. Other discoveries included flint blades, arrowheads, and a carnelian stamp seal, all of which point to the cave’s inhabitation as far back as the Chalcolithic and the Neolithic periods.

Experts at the Dead Sea Scroll Laboratories in Jerusalem found no writing on the scrap of parchment found in the jar, but they plan to carry out multispectral imaging of the artifact to reveal any ink invisible to the naked eye.

The Q12 study was carried out as part of the IAA’s efforts to systematically excavate Judean Desert caves that may hold ancient scroll caches in a bid to foil antiquities theft. The expedition to Qumran was the first of its kind in the northern Judean Desert.

The IAA announced in November that it was launching a massive project to find as yet undiscovered Dead Sea Scrolls in the desert. Last summer an IAA team excavated the Cave of the Skulls in Zeelim Valley after the antiquities watchdog caught thieves in the act.

Gutfeld said he and his team “absolutely” plan to survey more caves in the region of Qumran in the coming months to determine where else to dig.

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Follow Ilan Ben Zion on Twitter and Facebook.</s>It hasn’t happened since 1956, but Israeli archaeologists are announcing the discovery of a new cave – the 12th so far – used by Jews of the Second Temple era to hide scrolls containing copies of the Hebrew Bible and other texts.

“This is one of the most exciting archaeological discoveries, and the most important in the last 60 years, in the caves of Qumran,” said Oren Gutfield of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology, co-discoverer with his colleague Ahiad Ovadia.

The discovery and excavation were part of “Operation Scroll,” a new program of the Israel Antiquities Authority to systematically survey the Judean Desert to identify all its caves and to explore them.

The new discovery, designated Q12, revealed that at one time, the cave had contained scrolls but all had been looted, as determined by a pair of iron pickax heads from the 1950s found at the site. But storage jars and lids like those found in other Qumran caves were present, though broken and emptied.

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Evidence of looting raises questions about the provenance of scroll fragments attributed to the previously known caves. In October 2016, the IAA unveiled a 4.3 inch by 1 inch papyrus fragment carbon seized from looters and dated to the 7th century B.C. that contained the oldest-known mention of Jerusalem in Hebrew.

“This exciting excavation is the closest we’ve come to discovering new Dead Sea scrolls in 60 years. Until now, it was accepted that Dead Sea scrolls were found only in 11 caves at Qumran, but now there is no doubt that this is the 12th cave,” said Gutfeld.

“Finding this additional scroll cave means we can no longer be certain that the original locations (Caves 1 through 11) attributed to the Dead Sea scrolls that reached the market via the Bedouins are accurate.”

In addition to the broken storage jars, fragments of cloth that once wrapped scrolls, a string used to bind the scrolls and a piece of worked leather that was a part of a scroll were found. Pottery chards, flint blades, arrowheads and a stamp seal made of semi-precious carnelian revealed human activity in the cave going back thousands of years before the it was used to hide holy Scripture.

“Although at the end of the day no scroll was found, and instead we ‘only’ found a piece of parchment rolled up in a jug that was being processed for writing, the findings indicate beyond any doubt that the cave contained scrolls that were stolen.”

The find is the first success for Operation Scroll and is seen as evidence more biblical material may still remain, untouched, hidden in the Judean desert.

“The important discovery of another scroll cave attests to the fact that a lot of work remains to be done in the Judean Desert and finds of huge importance are still waiting to be discovered,” said Israel Hasson, director-general of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

“We are in a race against time as antiquities thieves steal heritage assets worldwide for financial gain. The State of Israel needs to mobilize and allocate the necessary resources in order to launch a historic operation, together with the public, to carry out a systematic excavation of all the caves of the Judean Desert.”</s>Archaeologists from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered a new "Dead Sea Scroll cave," the first such discovery in more than 60 years, according to a university press release .

The cave—located in cliffs near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea—is now thought to be the 12th of its kind. Researchers found a long list of items including smashed jars and a leather strap for binding and cloth for wrapping the scrolls, but they did not actually find an actual scroll.

"The important discovery of another scroll cave attests to the fact that a lot of work remains to be done," said Israel Hasson, director-gneral of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in a press release. "We are in a race against time."

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of ancient manuscripts thought to be among the oldest known surviving Judeo-Chrisitian texts.</s>The legendary Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in the Qumran Caves of the eastern Judaean Desert in the 1940s and ’50s, are some of the most important historical, religious and linguistic texts in the world—they include the second-oldest known surviving manuscripts of works later included in the Hebrew Bible canon. Researchers thought they had discovered them all, but now we know for sure there are more out there.

Archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Virginia’s Liberty University have discovered another Dead Sea Scroll cave, bringing the total of the caves from 11 up to 12.

“This is one of the most exciting archaeological discoveries, and the most important in the last 60 years, in the caves of Qumran,” Hebrew University archaeologist Oren Gutfeld said in a post on the university’s website.

The only catch—all of the scrolls from the newly discovered cave are missing.

Jars that once held scrolls were found hidden in the niches of the walls and the back of the tunnel, but they had been broken open and had their contents removed. Iron pick axe heads from the 1950’s were discovered, indicting it had been looted by Bedouins in the middle of the last century.

Parchment that had yet to be written on, a leather strap for binding a scroll, along with flint blades, arrowheads, decorative stamps and tendons and pieces of animal skin containing fragments were also discovered, helping to date the remnants of the cave and assure it once contained Dead Sea Scrolls.

“Although at the end of the day no scroll was found, and instead we ‘only’ found a piece of parchment rolled up in a jug that was being processed for writing, the findings indicate beyond any doubt that the cave contained scrolls that were stolen,” Gutfeld said. The findings include the jars in which the scrolls and their covering were hidden, a leather strap for binding the scroll, a cloth that wrapped the scrolls, tendons and pieces of skin connecting fragments, and more.”

“Finding this additional scroll cave means we can no longer be certain that the original locations (Caves 1 through 11) attributed to the Dead Sea scrolls that reached the market via the Bedouins are accurate.”

Regarding this most recent discovery, Israel Hasson, director-general of the Israel Antiquities Authority, declared “We are in a race against time” as antiquities thieves steal such artifacts for financial gain.

According to CNN, researchers believe Dead Sea Scroll fragments have made their way onto the black market over the past few years. Gutfeld told the news network this is actually what led authorities and researchers to embark on the task of surveying all the caves at Qumran in the Judean desert. He believes this is likely just the first in a series of new discoveries about the Dead Sea Scrolls and the caves that contain them.</s>Archaeologists Excavate 12th Cave They Say Once Housed Dead Sea Scrolls

Archaeologists from the U.S. and Israel say they have found evidence that a 12th cave was used to store Dead Sea Scrolls, the ancient manuscripts dating back to the time of Jesus.

"This exciting excavation is the closest we've come to discovering new Dead Sea scrolls in 60 years," Oren Gutfeld of The Hebrew University said in a statement about the discovery. "Until now, it was accepted that Dead Sea scrolls were found only in 11 caves at Qumran, but now there is no doubt that this is the 12th cave."

Since the late 1940s, when the scrolls were found in caves in the cliffs along the Dead Sea, scholars have studied them for insights into the history of the Hebrew Bible and the origins of Christianity.

As NPR has reported, "The scrolls appear to have been hidden in the desert near Qumran in the West Bank by a Jewish sect known as the Essenes that existed around the time of Jesus."

Although the 12th cave, excavated by a team from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Liberty University in Virginia, had previously been mapped, this is the most detailed study of its contents.

"Although at the end of the day no scroll was found, and instead we 'only' found a piece of parchment rolled up in a jug that was being processed for writing, the findings indicate beyond any doubt that the cave contained scrolls that were stolen," Gutfeld explained.

"The findings include the jars in which the scrolls and their covering were hidden, a leather strap for binding the scroll, a cloth that wrapped the scrolls, tendons and pieces of skin connecting fragments, and more."

Looters also left behind flint blades, arrowheads and a stamp seal made of a stone called carnelian, which offers clues about when and how the cave was used over the centuries.

"I imagine they came into the tunnel. They found the scroll jars. They took the scrolls," Gutfeld told the BBC. "They even opened the scrolls and left everything around, the textiles, the pottery."

"Thank God they took only the scrolls," he told The Washington Post. "They left behind all the evidence that the scrolls were there."

In 2011, Google and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem made five of the hundreds of Dead Sea manuscripts available to the public online, as we reported.</s>The surprising discovery, representing a milestone in Dead Sea Scroll research, was made by Dr. Oren Gutfeld and Ahiad Ovadia from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Archaeology, with the help of Dr. Randall Price and students from Liberty University in Virginia USA.

The excavators are the first in over 60 years to discover a new scroll cave and to properly excavate it.

The excavation was supported by the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria, by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), and is a part of the new "Operation Scroll" launched at the IAA by its Director-General, Mr. Israel Hasson, to undertake systematic surveys and to excavate the caves in the Judean Desert.

Excavation of the cave revealed that at one time it contained Dead Sea scrolls. Numerous storage jars and lids from the Second Temple period were found hidden in niches along the walls of the cave and deep inside a long tunnel at its rear. The jars were all broken and their contents removed, and the discovery towards the end of the excavation of a pair of iron pickaxe heads from the 1950s (stored within the tunnel for later use) proves the cave was looted.

Until now, it was believed that only 11 caves had contained scrolls. With the discovery of this cave, scholars have now suggested that it would be numbered as Cave 12. Like Cave 8, in which scroll jars but no scrolls were found, this cave will receive the designation Q12 (the Q=Qumran standing in front of the number to indicate no scrolls were found).

"This exciting excavation is the closest we've come to discovering new Dead Sea scrolls in 60 years. Until now, it was accepted that Dead Sea scrolls were found only in 11 caves at Qumran, but now there is no doubt that this is the 12th cave," said Dr. Oren Gutfeld, an archaeologist at the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology and director of the excavation. "Although at the end of the day no scroll was found, and instead we 'only' found a piece of parchment rolled up in a jug that was being processed for writing, the findings indicate beyond any doubt that the cave contained scrolls that were stolen. The findings include the jars in which the scrolls and their covering were hidden, a leather strap for binding the scroll, a cloth that wrapped the scrolls, tendons and pieces of skin connecting fragments, and more."

The finds from the excavation include not only the storage jars, which held the scrolls, but also fragments of scroll wrappings, a string that tied the scrolls, and a piece of worked leather that was a part of a scroll. The finding of pottery and of numerous flint blades, arrowheads, and a decorated stamp seal made of carnelian, a semi-precious stone, also revealed that this cave was used in the Chalcolithic and the Neolithic periods.

This first excavation to take place in the northern part of the Judean Desert as part of "Operation Scroll" will open the door to further understanding the function of the caves with respect to the scrolls, with the potential of finding new scroll material. The material, when published, will provide important new evidence for scholars of the archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea caves.

"The important discovery of another scroll cave attests to the fact that a lot of work remains to be done in the Judean Desert and finds of huge importance are still waiting to be discovered," said Israel Hasson, Director-General of the Israel Antiquities Authority. "We are in a race against time as antiquities thieves steal heritage assets worldwide for financial gain. The State of Israel needs to mobilize and allocate the necessary resources in order to launch a historic operation, together with the public, to carry out a systematic excavation of all the caves of the Judean Desert."

Remnant of scroll when removed from jar. Credit: Casey L. Olson and Oren Gutfeld

Explore further: Israel to launch expedition to find more Dead Sea Scrolls</s>Researchers have discovered a new cave in Israel that they say once held Dead Sea Scrolls, making it just the 12th such cave of its kind found. The find is thus a milestone, according to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The cave was looted long before the archeologists excavated it, but inside they found telltale signs that scrolls had been there: broken storage jars and lids on its edges and in a tunnel in the back.

“This exciting excavation is the closest we’ve come to discovering new Dead Sea scrolls in 60 years. Until now, it was accepted that Dead Sea scrolls were found only in 11 caves at Qumran, but now there is no doubt that this is the 12th cave,” Oren Gutfeld, an archaeologist at the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology and director of the excavation, said in a statement.

“Although at the end of the day no scroll was found, and instead we ‘only’ found a piece of parchment rolled up in a jug that was being processed for writing, the findings indicate beyond any doubt that the cave contained scrolls that were stolen.”

Archaeologists also found a string that would have tied the scrolls, as well as pottery, flint blades, and arrowheads.

“The findings include the jars in which the scrolls and their covering were hidden, a leather strap for binding the scroll, a cloth that wrapped the scrolls, tendons and pieces of skin connecting fragments, and more,” Gutfeld added.

A professor and students from Liberty University in Virginia also helped with the research.

The team also found the iron remnants of pickaxes in the cave. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem said that it was looted by Bedouins in the 1950s.

“The important discovery of another scroll cave attests to the fact that a lot of work remains to be done in the Judean Desert and finds of huge importance are still waiting to be discovered,” Israel Hasson, Director-General of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in the statement.

“We are in a race against time as antiquities thieves steal heritage assets worldwide for financial gain.”</s>Archaeologists have uncovered a new cave that once housed Dead Sea Scrolls, in a discovery described as one of the “most important” in 60 years.

 

 The Hebrew University in Jerusalem said the scrolls were missing from the cave.

 

 The Dead Sea Scrolls, which include the oldest known manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, date from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE.

 

 About 900 scrolls were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in the Qumran caves above the Dead Sea. The parchment and papyrus scrolls contain Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic writing, and include several of the earliest-known texts from the Bible, including the oldest surviving copy of the Ten Commandments. “This discovery of a 12th cave could revolutionise the information we have on the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Hebrew University archaeologist Oren Gutfeld said, calling it one of the “most important” discoveries since 1956.



 The cave discovered west of Qumran in the occupied West Bank contained no manuscripts, but there is ample evidence of their earlier presence.

 

 This includes fragments of pottery in which they were placed and the leather straps, Mr. Gutfeld said. Many of the caves containing the manuscripts were looted in the 1950s. 

 

 Heads of pickaxes dating from that time were found in the cave in another indication they had been looted, a Hebrew University statement said. “We hope to find other caves containing or having contained manuscripts as part of the operation launched by the Antiquities Authority to carry out systematic excavations in the caves of the Judean Desert (where the Dead Sea is located),” Mr. Gutfeld added. 

 

 The artefacts are mostly housed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where some of the larger pieces are shown at the dimly lit Shrine of the Book. — AFP</s>Sign up for Meridian’s Free Newsletter, please CLICK HERE

It hasn’t happened since 1956, but Israeli archaeologists are announcing the discovery of a new cave – the 12th so far – used by Jews of the Second Temple era to hide scrolls containing copies of the Hebrew Bible and other texts.

“This is one of the most exciting archaeological discoveries, and the most important in the last 60 years, in the caves of Qumran,” said Oren Gutfield of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology, co-discoverer with his colleague Ahiad Ovadia.

The discovery and excavation were part of “Operation Scroll,” a new program of the Israel Antiquities Authority to systematically survey the Judean Desert to identify all its caves and to explore them.

The new discovery, designated Q12, revealed that at one time, the cave had contained scrolls but all had been looted, as determined by a pair of iron pickax heads from the 1950s found at the site. But storage jars and lids like those found in other Qumran caves were present, though broken and emptied.

Evidence of looting raises questions about the provenance of scroll fragments attributed to the previously known caves. In October 2016, the IAA unveiled a 4.3 inch by 1 inch papyrus fragment carbon seized from looters and dated to the 7th century B.C. that contained the oldest-known mention of Jerusalem in Hebrew.

“This exciting excavation is the closest we’ve come to discovering new Dead Sea scrolls in 60 years. Until now, it was accepted that Dead Sea scrolls were found only in 11 caves at Qumran, but now there is no doubt that this is the 12th cave,” said Gutfeld.

To read the full article, click here.</s>JERUSALEM: Archaeologists have uncovered a new cave that once housed Dead Sea Scrolls, in a discovery described as one of the "most important" in 60 years.

The Hebrew University in Jerusalem said the scrolls were missing from the cave, though, but hopes to find others.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, which include the oldest known manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, date from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD.

The around 900 scrolls were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in the Qumran caves above the Dead Sea.

"This discovery of a 12th cave could revolutionise the information we have on the Dead Sea Scrolls," Hebrew University archaeologist Oren Gutfeld told AFP, calling it one of the "most important" discoveries since 1956.

The parchment and papyrus scrolls contain Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic writing, and include several of the earliest-known texts from the Bible, including the oldest surviving copy of the Ten Commandments.

The cave discovered west of Qumran in the occupied West Bank contained no manuscripts, but there is ample evidence of their earlier presence.

This includes fragments of pottery in which they were placed and the leather straps, Gutfeld said.

Many of the caves containing the manuscripts were looted in the 1950s.

Heads of pickaxes dating from that time were found in the cave in another indication they had been looted, a Hebrew University statement said.

"We hope to find other caves containing or having contained manuscripts as part of the operation launched by the Antiquities Authority to carry out systematic excavations in the caves of the Judean Desert (where the Dead Sea is located)," Gutfeld added.

Many experts believe the manuscripts of the Dead Sea were written by the Essenes, a dissident Jewish sect that had retreated into the desert.

Other scholars believe they came from libraries of the Second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and private libraries sheltered in caves.

The most recent scrolls date to around 70 AD, when Roman troops destroyed the temple.

The artefacts are mostly housed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where some of the larger pieces are shown at the dimly lit Shrine of the Book.

The Shrine's white ceramic dome recalls the lid of the jars in which the manuscripts were uncovered.
Archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announce the discovery of another cave that used to have Dead Sea Scrolls.