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Video: Rare Document from First Temple Period Returned to Israel

(Israel Antiquities Authority) The Israel Antiquities Authority has succeeded in repatriating a First Temple-period document, dated to the late seventh or early sixth century BCE, written in ancient Hebrew script. In 2018, Professor Shmuel Ahituv encountered a photograph of the document and the person who owned it was located in Montana, USA. The owner explained that the papyrus was given to his mother when she visited Jerusalem in 1965 by Joseph Sa'ad, Curator of the Rockefeller Museum, and Halil Iskander Kandu, a well-known antiquities dealer from Bethlehem, who many years ago sold thousands of Dead Sea scroll fragments. Back home, his mother hung the framed scroll fragment on the wall. The Antiquities Authority persuaded the owner to transfer the fragile document to Israel, where it would be conserved in climate-controlled conditions. Dr. Joe Uziel, Head of the Dead Sea Scrolls Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said, "Our collection is made up of 25,000 fragments which compose 1,000 manuscripts. Most of these manuscripts date to the Second Temple period 2,000 years ago and afterward. But what we are looking at here are three documents, written on papyrus, which date back to the First Temple period - 2,700 years ago."
2022-09-12 00:00:00
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