Fragments of Roman-era Biblical parchments found in desert

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2005

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Fragments of a Biblical manuscript dating back to the last Jewish revolt against Roman rule in 135 AD Judaea, have been uncovered near the Dead Sea with academics hailing it a sensational discovery.

After four decades with a dearth of new finds, archaeologists had resigned themselves to believing the desert caves in the modern-day West Bank had already yielded all their secrets from the Roman era.

"It's simply sensational, a dream come true," enthused archaeology professor Hanan Eshel, a Biblical specialist at Israel's Bar Ilan University.

For the past 20 years, he has scoured the Judaean desert around the Dead Sea, overturning stone after stone in search of Biblical parchments, only to be trumped by Bedouin who stumbled across the...