Ancient Dead Sea Scrolls mystery unlocked

[guy]

 

Here is an interesting article on closer examination of the Great Isaiah Scroll, one the more than 900 texts found on the northern shore of the Dead Sea.

 

Here's some background information on the Great Isaiah Scroll, first:

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The Isaiah Scroll, designated 1QIsaa and also known as the Great Isaiah Scroll, is one of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls that were first discovered by Bedouin shepherds in 1946 from Qumran Cave 1. The scroll is written in Hebrew and contains the entire Book of Isaiah from beginning to end, apart from a few small damaged portions. It is the oldest complete copy of the Book of Isaiah, being approximately 1000 years older than the oldest Hebrew manuscripts known before the scrolls' discovery. 1QIsaa is also notable in being the only scroll from the Qumran Caves to be preserved almost in its entirety.

The scroll is written on 17 sheets of parchment. It is particularly large, being about 734 cm (24 feet) long and ranges from 25.3 to 27 cm high (10 to 10.6 inches) with 54 columns of text.

 

Here's the study:

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Tests were carried out on the longest text, known as the Great Isaiah Scroll. It was found that probably two unknown individuals had copied down the words using near-identical handwriting.

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Researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands examined the Isaiah scroll using "cutting edge" pattern recognition and AI. They analysed a single Hebrew letter, aleph, which appears more than 5,000 times in the scroll.

 

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"The ancient ink traces relate directly to a person's muscle movement and are person specific," they said, using a technique which helped produce evidence that more than one scribe was involved. "[The] likely scenario is [one of] two different scribes working closely together and trying to keep the same style of writing yet revealing themselves, their individuality."

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56842712

 

 

Summary: This is only one text examined out of more than 900. It will interesting to learn what will be the future discoveries will be.

 

guy also known as gaius

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_Scroll

Edited April 23, 2021 by guy