- A cave survey in Israel's Judean Desert has found papyrus
scrolls, coins and arrow heads from the time of the Jewish rebellion against
the Romans in the second century, archaeologists said.
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- The scrolls, while believed to be less significant than
the Dead Sea Scrolls found in the region in 1947, will shed light on the
time of the revolt led by Simon Bar Kochba, said Zvika Tzuk, an archaeologist
for the National Parks Authority.
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- The artifacts were found in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve,
near the Dead Sea, by a team of archaeologists headed by Professor Hanan
Eshel from Bar Ilan University and Amos Frumkin of Jerusalem's Hebrew University.
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- Historians believe the rebels fled to the desert after
the Romans crushed the revolt, hiding out in hillside caves dotted throughout
the rugged terrain.
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- Rappelling into a cave, archaeologists found the papyrus
scrolls as well as coins bearing the name "Shimon," a reference
to Bar Kochba, the leader of a 132-135 rebellion, the parks authority said.
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- Archaeologists also found a dozen wooden arrows and metal
arrowheads, and scraps of cloth.
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- The scrolls, as yet unopened, have been given to the
Israel Museum, where they will be researched.
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- Between 1947-65, archaeologists discovered hundreds of
ancient Jewish documents at Qumran, the area where the Dead Sea Scrolls
were found.
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- Decades later, archaeologists believed all the scrolls
in the area had been found until the discovery of a number of documents
near Jericho between 1986-93.
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- "After two generations where we didn't discover
anything, this find is very important," Tzuk said.
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- © The Australian
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- http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,5522789%255E1702,00.html
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