A Dead Sea Scroll thought to have been forgotten has now been rediscovered more than 6,000 miles away in the United States.
The ancient fragment, estimated to be around 2,700 years old, is one of only three papyri to survive from the First Temple period.
But it was practically forgotten, and might have remained had it not been for the death of Ada Yardeni, a scholar of ancient Hebrew scripture, in 2018.
When asked to finish her unfinished book, Professor Shmuel Ahituv spotted the fragment in a photograph and launched a campaign to track down the missing parchment.
The papyrus was eventually found in the state of Montana, where its owner explained that his mother had received it as a gift during a visit to Jerusalem in 1965.
She had hung the fragment framed on her wall.
Unearthed: A Dead Sea Scroll thought to have been forgotten has now been rediscovered more than 6,000 miles away in the United States
The ancient fragment, estimated to be around 2,700 years old, is one of only three papyri to survive from the First Temple period
At an invitation to the Holy Land, the current unnamed owner visited the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) laboratory where the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept and agreed that they should remain there for future preservation.
“Towards the end of the First Temple period, writing was widespread,” said Joe Uziel, director of the IAA Judean Desert Scrolls Unit.
“However, documents written on organic materials from the First Temple period – like this papyrus – have hardly survived.
“While we have thousands of scroll fragments from the Second Temple period, we have only three documents, including this newly found one, from the First Temple period.
“Each new document sheds further light on the literacy and administration of the First Temple period.”
The fragment itself is mysterious as it consists of just four torn lines beginning with the words “Send to Ishmael…” in ancient Hebrew.
It is believed that the full message was a set of instructions to the recipient.
Professor Ahituv of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev said: “The name Ishmael mentioned in the document was a common name in Biblical times and means ‘God will hear.’
To confirm the authenticity of the document, it was radiometrically dated at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, revealing its ancient family tree
At an invitation to the Holy Land, the current unnamed owner visited the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) laboratory where the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept and agreed that they should remain there for future preservation
The fragment itself is mysterious as it consists of just four torn lines beginning with the words “Send to Ishmael…” in ancient Hebrew
“It first appears in the Bible as the name of the son of Abraham and Hagar and is later the personal name of several people in the Bible.
“It also appears as the name of officials on paleographic finds such as bullae – clay stamp seals – used to seal royal documents in the administration of the kingdom of Judah.”
To confirm the authenticity of the document, it was radiometrically dated at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, revealing its ancient family tree.
Experts believe the parchment likely came from the same caves in the Judean Desert where the other Dead Sea Scrolls were kept for millennia by a dry, stable climate.
Experts believe the parchment likely came from the same caves in the Judean Desert (pictured) where the other Dead Sea Scrolls were kept for millennia by a dry, stable climate
The fragment was later passed on by Joseph Sa’ad, curator of the Rockefeller Museum, and Halil Iskander Kandu, a well-known antiquities dealer who sold thousands of Dead Sea Scroll fragments.
Now the document will be preserved for future generations.
Eitan Klein of the ILO’s Theft Prevention Unit said: “The return of this document to Israel is part of ongoing efforts to protect and preserve the cultural heritage of the State of Israel.
“It is a heritage that belongs to all its citizens and has played a role in the history of the historical heritage of the country and its inhabitants over the centuries.
“The legal and worthy place for this artifact is the ILO Dead Sea Scrolls Unit, and we are making every effort to recover additional fragmentary scrolls from abroad and bring them to Israel.”
The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered between 1946 and 1956 and are 2,000 years old
Discovered between 1946 and 1956, the Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 ancient manuscripts dating back as far as 2,000 years ago.
The texts comprise thousands of parchment and papyrus fragments and, on rare occasions, entire manuscripts.
They contain parts of today’s Hebrew Bible as well as a number of extra-biblical documents.
The scrolls were found by shepherd Muhammed Edh-Dhib while searching for a stray among the limestone cliffs of Khirbet Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea in what was then British Mandate Palestine – now the West Bank.
The story goes that in a cave in the dark cleft of a steep cliff, Muhammad hurled a stone into the dark interior and was startled when he heard the sound of pots breaking.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, which contain tens of thousands of parchment and papyrus fragments (file photo), contain portions of what is now known as the Hebrew Bible. They also contain a number of extra-biblical documents
When the young Bedouin ventured inside, he found a mysterious collection of large clay jars in which he found ancient scrolls, some wrapped in linen and blackened with age.
The texts have since been excavated by archaeologists who are now attempting to digitize their contents before they decay to the point of illegibility.
The texts are of great historical and religious importance and comprise the earliest known surviving copies of biblical and extra-biblical documents, as well as evidence of diversity in late Second Temple Judaism.
They are dated between 408 B.C. and 318 AD and written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Nabataean, mainly on parchment, but also on papyrus and bronze.
The scrolls are traditionally divided into three groups.
“Biblical” manuscripts, copies of texts from the Hebrew Bible, make up 40 percent of the loot.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were found by the shepherd Muhammed Edh-Dhib while looking for a stray among the limestone cliffs of Khirbet Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea
