A 12th cave that was once home to some of the Dead Sea scrolls — ancient biblical manuscripts — has been discovered by archaeologists in Israel.
No scrolls with writing were found in the cave, but a blank scroll prepared for writing as well as broken and empty jars and other artifacts were found in the cave, believed to have been looted by Bedouins in the 1950s, according to Fox News.
"This exciting excavation is the closest we’ve come to discovering new Dead Sea scrolls in 60 years," excavation director Oren Gutfeld said, Fox News reported. "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 12th cave."
"Although at the end of the day no scroll was found, and instead we 'only' found a piece of parchment rolled up in a jug that was being processed for writing, the findings indicate beyond any doubt that the cave contained scrolls that were stolen," Gutfeld, an archeologist at Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology, continued.
It is believed some Dead Sea scroll fragments have been sold on the antiquity black market in the last few years, according to CNN. The appearance of these artifacts led researchers to look into all the caves at Qumran to see if any artifacts remained undiscovered.
There are hundreds of caves yet to be explored, Gutfeld said.
“We are in a race against time as antiquities thieves steal heritage assets worldwide for financial gain,” he said, Fox News reported.
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