US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — Some time ago, experts began to study the Dead Sea scrolls, which include about a thousand ancient manuscripts about religious and biblical events. After various studies, experts were able to unravel a number of oddities regarding artifacts.
To find out where the scrolls came from, scientists studied the DNA of animals. As it turned out, ancient artifacts were made from the skin of sheep and cows, said Oded Rehavi of Tel Aviv University.
According to researchers, the text on the skin was applied between the III century BC and the I century AD, that is, about 2000 years ago. Those times were critical for the followers of Judaism and supporters of Christianity.
Almost all the manuscripts were created in the same place by a group of scribes (in which exactly – a mystery). This is evidenced by the fact that all the sheep from whose skin the scriptures were made had family ties. Only a few cow leather scrolls were created elsewhere: in the Jewish deserts it was impossible to raise cattle.
The artifacts themselves were discovered back in 1947-1960. All this time they were kept in the library of scrolls – in 11 caves near Qumran (Judean desert in the northwest of the Dead Sea).
Scrolls were also created in other regions. For example, some were found in Masad (55 km from Qumran). Two scriptures were made on the skins of sheep not related in kind. People probably just made a copy of the text.
The rest of the scrolls were also made, most likely in the neighboring regions of Qumran, sheep’s DNA indicates this. Scientists have yet to find out this question. Thanks to the scrolls and their analysis, the experts were able to find out the geographical distribution of the beliefs of that time.
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