“It is very exciting to see these findings and expose them to the public, findings that shed a lot of light on our history,” said Avi Cohen, chief executive of the Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage. “These finds are important not only for our own cultural heritage, but also for the whole world.”
Other items include a casket of coins with Jewish symbols, including a harp and date palm, arrowheads and spearheads, woven fabrics, sandals and louse combs – all thought of as the end of the Bar Kokhba Uprising (132-136 AD) , in which Jews fought against Roman rule in Judea.
The treasures were found in what the Antiquities Authority called the “Cave of Horrors” in the Judean desert.
The area’s unique dry climate means that documents found there have survived in exceptionally good condition.
Using methods more likely to be seen in a Hollywood movie than in an archaeological project, researchers had to climb down a narrow rock wall to reach the cave opening, which is 262 feet below a cliff face and flanked on both sides by gorges word. Drones have also been used to explore hard-to-reach parts of caves.
In its announcement on Tuesday, the authorities want to point out that access around the cave is forbidden for security reasons.
The remarkable discoveries were made during an Israeli project to prevent looting in the Holy Land, which experts say has been a constant threat to undiscovered artifacts since the first discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The director of the Antiquities Authority, Israel Hasson, who launched the operation, called on the Israeli government to do more to protect other undiscovered treasures.
“The newly discovered roll fragments are a wake-up call for the state. Resources must be allocated for the completion of this historically important operation,” he said.
“We have to make sure we retrieve all the data that has not yet been discovered in the caves before the robbers do. Some things are out of value.”
CORRECTION: (18 March 2021, 09:30 ET): An earlier version of this article was incorrect when the cave of horror was discovered. It was first excavated in the 1960s, not in 2017.
CORRECTION: (March 18, 2021, 12:35 PM ET): An earlier version of this article incorrectly indicated the location of the cave where the new Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The cave is in Israel, not in the West Bank.
Paul Goldman contributed.