Manuscripts Dead Sea scroll deciphered to reveal ancient calendar One of the final documents to be decoded from the records of the biblical-era desert sect has been revealed as a chart of their feast days More to learn … tourists look at portions of the Dead Sea scrolls on display at the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem. Photograph: Tara Todras-Whitehill/APOne of the last remaining Dead Sea scrolls has been deciphered by researchers at the University of Haifa, with the ancient fragment revealing that its author made a number of mistakes that had to be corrected by another scribe. First discovered in the 1940s by Bedouin shepherds in the Qumran caves near the Dead Sea, the scrolls date back two millennia, from the third century BC to the first century AD. Israel brings Dead Sea scrolls to life with upgrade of digital archive Read more“The scroll is written in code, but its actual content is simple and well-known, and there was no reason to conceal it,” they write in the Journal of Biblical Literature. The Qumran sect was a fanatical, hermitic, persecuted group who lived in the desert, according to the university.

Source: The Guardian January 26, 2018 15:33 UTC