The Associated Press
Ilan Ben Zion
Publishing date: Sep 07, 2022
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has acquired a previously unknown ancient papyrus bearing a Hebrew inscription dated to around 2,700 years ago that had long been in possession of a Montana resident, the country’s antiquities authority said Wednesday.
The scrap of papyrus — scarcely larger than a postage stamp with four lines of angular script — is one of just a few from the region in the Late Iron Age, archaeologists said. The Israel Antiquities Authority said it authenticated its age using radiocarbon dating, which corresponded with the age of the text’s writing style.
Joe Uziel, director of the Judean desert scrolls unit, said the matching radiocarbon date and paleographic style makes him “very certain” that it is not a modern forgery.
The papyrus, which bears the Biblical name Ishmael, was likely looted sometime in the last century from a cave in the Judean Desert, he said.
Its provenance and journey from the desert to Montana six decades ago and now to Jerusalem remain nebulous.
The antiquities authority declined to name the Montana resident but said the man’s mother obtained the artifact during a visit to Jordanian-occupied east Jerusalem in 1965 and brought it to the United States.
Numerous scroll fragments from the arid region near the Dead Sea that have emerged on the antiquities market in recent years, including several at Washington’s Museum of the Bible, have proven to be forgeries.
The antiquities authority showed the papyrus to the press at its labs in Jerusalem alongside two other ancient Hebrew fragments it holds — one found in a cave near the Dead Sea in the 1950s and a second that was seized from the antiquities black market in 2016 and believed to have been looted from a cave.
Eitan Klein, head of the Israeli antiquities’ theft prevention unit, said the Montana man’s mother may have either purchased the object from Khalil Iskander Shahin — a Bethlehem-based antiquities dealer better known as “Kando,” who traded in many of the originally discovered Dead Sea Scrolls — or may have been given the papyrus by the curator of the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem.
How Shahin or the curator, both of whom have since died, obtained the papyrus remains uncertain.
The unidentified Montana man inherited the papyrus after his mother’s death. An Israeli academic noticed a photo of this previously undocumented text in a colleague’s unpublished papers and notified Klein, who tracked down the owner, the antiquities authority said.
Klein said the man was invited to Jerusalem in 2019 and the sides came to an unspecified “arrangement” whereby the papyrus was given to the Israeli authorities.
Israel unveils 'extremely rare' Iron Age papyrus note
Issued on: 07/09/2022 - AFP
An Israel Antiquities Authority conservator views under a magnifying glass the papyrus fragment at its conservation lab in Jerusalem
Issued on: 07/09/2022 - AFP
An Israel Antiquities Authority conservator views under a magnifying glass the papyrus fragment at its conservation lab in Jerusalem MENAHEM KAHANA AFP
Jerusalem (AFP) – Israel's Antiquities Authority displayed Wednesday a rare papyrus note in ancient Hebrew dating back 2,700 years, recently brought back to Jerusalem after its chance discovery in the United States.
The letter fragment, written in the Palaeo-Hebrew used during the First Temple era, constitutes four lines beginning "To Ishmael send", with the rest of the words incomplete.
"We don’t know exactly what was being sent and to where," said Joe Uziel, director of the antiquities authority's Judaean Desert scrolls unit.
In the Iron Age, Hebrews used clay fragments to scrawl short notes and animal hide for scriptures, with papyrus reserved for official correspondence, said Eitan Klein, deputy director of the authority's antiquities theft prevention unit.
Papyruses left in the dry climate of the Judaean desert could have survived the ages, but there were only two other papyruses from the First Temple era known to researchers before the latest discovery, Klein said.#photo1
"This papyrus is unique, extremely rare," he said.
Ahituv was surprised to see in the book's draft a picture of the "To Ishmael" papyrus, which he had not been familiar with.
He contacted Klein, and with the help of Yardeni's daughter, managed to locate the US academic who had connected Yardeni to the owner of the fragment -- a man in Montana.
The owner had inherited the papyrus from his late mother, who in 1965 purchased or received it as a gift from Joseph Saad, curator of the then Palestine Archaeological Museum.
Saad had obtained it from legendary Bethlehem antiquities dealer Halil Iskander Kandu, who Klein said had most likely bought it from Bedouin who found it in a Judaean Desert cave.
Back in the United States, the woman had framed the papyrus below a picture of Saad and Kandu, and hung it in her home.#photo2
Klein invited the Montanan to visit Israel in 2019, showing him the Antiquities Authority's facilities to persuade him that the rare artefact would be preserved best there.
"He was convinced, and at the end of his visit, left the papyrus with us," Klein said, without providing further details on the man or process.
The authenticity and age of the artefact were determined using palaeographic and carbon-14 dating, Uziel said, noting researchers' apprehension about removing the papyrus from the back of the frame.
"She used adhesive glue and glued it and then framed it," he said. "Removing it will actually cause further damage to the papyrus."
To Uziel, any discovery of an artefact "is really a high," but "when we come to the written word, it's another level."
"We actually can make a much closer connection to the people living in the past," he said.
© 2022 AFP
The letter fragment, written in the Palaeo-Hebrew used during the First Temple era, constitutes four lines beginning "To Ishmael send", with the rest of the words incomplete.
"We don’t know exactly what was being sent and to where," said Joe Uziel, director of the antiquities authority's Judaean Desert scrolls unit.
In the Iron Age, Hebrews used clay fragments to scrawl short notes and animal hide for scriptures, with papyrus reserved for official correspondence, said Eitan Klein, deputy director of the authority's antiquities theft prevention unit.
Papyruses left in the dry climate of the Judaean desert could have survived the ages, but there were only two other papyruses from the First Temple era known to researchers before the latest discovery, Klein said.#photo1
"This papyrus is unique, extremely rare," he said.
Ahituv was surprised to see in the book's draft a picture of the "To Ishmael" papyrus, which he had not been familiar with.
He contacted Klein, and with the help of Yardeni's daughter, managed to locate the US academic who had connected Yardeni to the owner of the fragment -- a man in Montana.
The owner had inherited the papyrus from his late mother, who in 1965 purchased or received it as a gift from Joseph Saad, curator of the then Palestine Archaeological Museum.
Saad had obtained it from legendary Bethlehem antiquities dealer Halil Iskander Kandu, who Klein said had most likely bought it from Bedouin who found it in a Judaean Desert cave.
Back in the United States, the woman had framed the papyrus below a picture of Saad and Kandu, and hung it in her home.#photo2
Klein invited the Montanan to visit Israel in 2019, showing him the Antiquities Authority's facilities to persuade him that the rare artefact would be preserved best there.
"He was convinced, and at the end of his visit, left the papyrus with us," Klein said, without providing further details on the man or process.
The authenticity and age of the artefact were determined using palaeographic and carbon-14 dating, Uziel said, noting researchers' apprehension about removing the papyrus from the back of the frame.
"She used adhesive glue and glued it and then framed it," he said. "Removing it will actually cause further damage to the papyrus."
To Uziel, any discovery of an artefact "is really a high," but "when we come to the written word, it's another level."
"We actually can make a much closer connection to the people living in the past," he said.
© 2022 AFP
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