For the first time since 1956, scientists have managed to discover a cave in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were once hidden: manuscripts written by a Jewish sect from the 3rd century BC to the 2nd century AD. The newly discovered cave received the number Q12, where Q stands for the place of discovery - Qumran. Inside the cave was one blank scroll, as well as typical vessels for storing manuscripts. All the pitchers in Q12 were smashed, and there were two pickaxes dating from the 1950s nearby. Therefore, robbers visited the cave before the archeologists. The opening was reported in a press release from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Cave Q12 was found during the Hebrew University and Liberty University's field season (Lynchburg, VA, USA). The season was held within the framework of the Operation Scroll project. Its task is a continuous survey of Qumran, the search for new caves and their excavations. The Israel Antiquities Authority has information that “black archaeologists” are constantly working in the area, and in 2014 several of them were brought to justice.
The head of the expedition, Oren Gutfeld, emphasized in a press release that until now it was believed that the Qumran manuscripts were kept in eleven caves. Now the twelfth is discovered, which was never mentioned by informants of archaeologists, but, nevertheless, it was robbed in modern times.
The first Qumran manuscripts were discovered by the Bedouins in 1947 in a cave located one kilometer from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. Then this territory was under the control of Jordan. In 1949, excavations were carried out there for the first time (a joint effort of the Jordanian Antiquities Authority, the Palestine Archaeological Museum and the Bible Institute in Jerusalem). In cave Q1, seven scrolls were found, including the entire book of the prophet Isaiah. This handwritten Old Testament scroll remains the largest found at Qumran and the best preserved to this day.
Subsequently, archaeologists found ten more caves, in all of them, with the exception of Q10, at least one scroll was discovered. For example: about 15 thousand fragments survived in cave Q4, and one in Q9. In Q10, two earthenware shards (ostracon) with inscriptions were found.
The Qumran manuscripts are in two parts. The first is lists of biblical texts, there are now about 230 of them. The biblical corpus of the Qumran scrolls contains all the Old Testament books except for the book of Esther, as well as translations of some of them into Greek and Aramaic. Among the non-biblical texts in Qumran, historical writings, calendars, exegetical (interpretive) literature, hymns, etc. were found.
Of particular interest to researchers are scrolls with texts compiled by members of an eschatological religious group that called itself "Yahad" ("together", "community"). Scientists call this group the Qumranites. Some researchers consider the Qumranites to be Essenes, a sect known from ancient sources (in particular, Pliny, Josephus Flavius and Philo of Alexandria mentioned them). Other researchers are convinced that the Qumranites were not Essenes, or, in any case, not all of them and not throughout the life of the community were Essenes. But all, without exception, specialists involved in the Qumran community agree that the study of this sect sheds light on the messianic and eschatological expectations of the Jews of the 2nd century BC - 2nd century AD, which, in turn, allows a deeper understanding of the origins of Christianity. Learn more about the history of the discovery of the scrolls.their study, dating and publication can be read here.
Julia Shtutina
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