Tuesday, April 04, 2017

More new Dead Sea Scrolls fragments

BUT HOW MANY ARE GENUINE? 28 New Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments Sold in US (Owen Jarus, Live Science).
Twenty-eight fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls that were purchased from the antiquities market have yet to be published, but are now sitting in three U.S. institutions, Live Science has found.

Forthcoming publications will describe some of these fragments within the next year, experts said. The 28 "new" fragments are part of a growing number of Dead Sea Scrolls that have appeared in the United States. At least 45 fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls have popped up in the U.S. over the past two decades.

Scholars have questioned whether some of these fragments are modern-day forgeries or if they come from caves in the Judean desert that were looted in the past few decades.

[...]
There are so many fragments out there now that I am no longer sure which ones I have mentioned in the past and which ones are new. But it sounds as though at least most of these are new. Whether they are genuine or forgeries remains to be established, pending full publication and analysis. If then.

Some recent past posts on new possible fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls are here, here, here, and here.