The charred scroll from En-Gedi was too fragile to open, but scientists read it anyway. To unroll those lumps of ancient scroll would be unthinkable, as the gentlest touch might crumble the text to dust. The first bits of analysis, published Wednesday in Science Advances, reveal that the 1,500-year-old En-Gedi scroll contains the book of Leviticus written in Hebrew. The ancient En-Gedi scroll was much too fragile to be unfurled. But now scientists have figured out how to read the text without opening its fragile pages – revealing the scroll to be the book of Leviticus.

Source: Washington Post September 21, 2016 18:39 UTC