Jerusalem, December 30, 2016
New scrolls have been found on the territory of the Cave of Skulls in the mountainous area not far from the Dead Sea. Archaeologists discovered the scroll fragments, although the language in which the ancient texts are written is unknown to linguists, reports TsarGrad.
So far it has been established that they are not related to the Aramaic language group which the other Qumran manuscripts are written in. “We’re trying to compare the fragments with other known texts found in the Judean Desert,” one of the researchers told journalists. “So far it’s only clear that we have found manuscripts of an unknown origin.”
The new Dead Sea scroll fragments were lying haphazardly—probably looters had come across them before.
Moreover, archaeologists also discovered wooden combs, beads, ceramic vessels and fragments and fabric fragments at the same place.
Interestingly, the first scrolls were found quite accidentally. A Bedouin shepherd tells about how he threw a rock into some caves near Qumran and heard an unusual cracking sound. It turns out that the rock fell into a pitcher in which were found the Dead Sea Scrolls.
They managed to find 870 scrolls in the Judean Desert from 1947 to 1956, some of which are analogous to the world famous Ten Commandments. Moreover, some of the scrolls were found in their original size, while some were found in fragments or completely destroyed over time.
