Archeologists discover more Dead Sea Scrolls

The Israel Antiquity Authority on Tuesday announced it found nearly 80 first-century parchment fragments containing Greek text of the minor prophets Zechariah and Nahum. It’s the first new scroll discovery in the area in 60 years. Archeologists believe the pieces come from a scroll placed in the cave during the Jewish Bar Kochba Revolt against Rome between A.D. 132 and 136. The researchers also discovered a 6,000-year-old mummified child skeleton and what could be the oldest known intact woven basket in the world.

How did they find the artifacts? In 2017, the Israel Antiquity Authority launched an operation to beat plunderers to the remaining artifacts in the West Bank’s desert caves. The team used drones and rappellers to survey 50 miles and 500 caves. Before this discovery, the operation only yielded parchment fragments with no text.

Dig deeper: Read Rachel Lynn Aldrich’s report about a researcher finding “travel-sized Dead Sea Scrolls” in 2014.