Qumran scroll caves has never ceased to provide details from the past. In a recent excavation in a cliff nearby, a twelfth cave was discovered by experts.
For more than half a century after the first Dead Sea Scrolls were found hidden in a cave at Khirbat Qumrān, another discovery has been made by archaeologists. Researchers from Hebrew University has recently reported that they have identified a twelfth cave that they believed to have housed other scrolls until it was plundered.
"No doubt we have a new scroll cave. Only the scrolls themselves are not there. This exciting excavation is the closest we've come to discovering new Dead Sea Scrolls in 60 years. Until now, it was accepted that Dead Sea Scrolls were found only in 11 caves at Qumran, but now there is no doubt that this is the twelfth cave," Head archaeologist Oren Gutfeld told Times of Israel.
The 12th cave now designated as Q12 has been seen as another repository of other Dead Sea Scrolls. However, the researchers believed that those contained inside the newly discovered cave might have been already plundered in the middle of the 20th century.
Such scenario is not something new for the case of the scrolls and other artifacts found in the cave. In the past, the ancient manuscripts were plundered from the caves and were sold on the black market. It was through the effort of the Israeli government that those stolen artifacts were returned to its place of origin, including those scrolls stored in the Rockefeller Museum.
On the other hand, the excavation did not leave the researchers empty handed. There were some remains from the past that survived the shifting of time. There were some pottery jars, and wrappings found concealed in niches along the cave walls, according to BBC.
Aside from that, a piece of parchment rolled up in a jug was also discovered. The said parchment upon scrutiny somehow confirmed that the cave contained scrolls that were stolen.
Watch here below short discussion on the Dead Sea Scrolls: