The unique find is more than two thousand years old and is the first of its kind in more than 60 years.

Fragments of a scroll with biblical texts that are more than two thousand years old were found in caves near the Dead Sea. 

This was reported on March 16 by the Israel Antiquities Authority. 

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Archaeologists also found coins, a skeleton of a child buried six thousand years ago, and a basket woven about 10 thousand years ago. It may become the oldest such item. 

“For the first time in about 60 years, archaeologists have discovered (in the Dead Sea area) fragments of a biblical scroll. The scroll, written in Greek, includes passages from the Book of the Twelve Lesser Prophets, including the books of Zechariah and Nahum,” the department noted. 

The last time a series of biblical manuscripts from the 1st-3rd century were found in the late 1940s. It is noted that excavations in hard-to-reach places have been carried out since 2017. 

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Their goal was to prevent the plundering of antiquities in the Judean Desert, which became the target of “black archaeologists”. 

Archaeologists, with the support of volunteers, have explored about 80 kilometers of desert caves using drones. The recovered fragments of a Greek scroll of the Book of the Twelve Lesser Prophets were written by two different scribes. 

Experts have already reconstructed 11 lines of text from the books of the prophet Zechariah and Naum, finding significant and unexpected discrepancies with later versions of these passages.

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הבוקר, אנו חושפים בפניכם ובפני העולם, לראשונה, תוצאות ביניים של מבצע אתגרי בין שמים לארץ, שמתנהל במערות המדבר: קטעי מגילה מקראיים כתובים מימי בר כוכבא, שלד ילדה עטוף בד, בן 6,000 שנה, הסל השלם הקדום ביותר בעולם, והרבה יותר!
לפרטים נוספים >>https://t.co/gQNGzCUYLL pic.twitter.com/qBJ5evp4hG

— רשות העתיקות – Israel Antiquities Authority (@AntiquitiesIL) March 16, 2021