New Delhi: Archeologists claim to have discovered the 12th dead sea scroll cave which possess ancient Hebrew scriptures from the second temple period. The excavations in the cave on the cliffs west of Qumran, near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, represent a milestone in Dead Sea Scroll research.


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The excavators, including Oren Gutfeld and Ahiad Ovadia from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, are the first in over 60 years to discover a new scroll cave and to properly excavate it.


Excavation of the cave showed that at one time it contained Dead Sea scrolls. Numerous storage jars and lids from the Second Temple period (530 BCE and 70 CE) 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 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.


"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," he 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," he added.


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.


(With PTI inputs)