by emad » Sat Jul 16, 2005 11:38 am
Associated Press, Jerusalem<br>Saturday July 16, 2005<br>The Guardian <br><br>An encounter with a Bedouin robber in a desert valley has led to what one Israeli archaeologist described as one of the most important biblical finds from the region in half a century. <br><br>Professor Chanan Eshel, an archaeologist from Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, said yesterday that the discovery of two fragments of nearly 2,000-year-old parchment scroll from the Dead Sea area gave hope to biblical and archaeological scholars, frustrated by a dearth of material unearthed in the region in recent years, that the Judean desert could yet yield further artefacts. <br><br>"No more scrolls have been found in the Judean desert since 1965. This encourages scholars to believe that if they bother to excavate, survey and climb they will still find things in the Judean desert. The common knowledge has been that there is nothing left to find there," Prof Eshel said. <br><br>The two small pieces of brown animal skin, inscribed in Hebrew with verses from the Book of Leviticus, are said by Prof Eshel to be from "refugee" caves in Nachal Arugot, a canyon near the Dead Sea, where Jews hid from the Romans in the second century. <br><br>The scrolls are being tested by Israel's Antiquities Authority. <br><br>Prof Eshel said he was first shown the fragments last year in an abandoned police station near the Dead Sea. A Bedouin had been offered $20,000 (£11,000) on the black market and wanted an evaluation. <br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1529830,00.html">www.guardian.co.uk/israel...30,00.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
