Lost Fragment Of The Dead Sea Scrolls Discovered In Montana
Israel Antiquities Authority/FacebookThe tiny piece of parchment is one of just three known to exist from the First Temple Period.
In 2022, researchers with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) found a rare piece of the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls in an unlikely place. They discovered that an American woman in Montana had kept a 2,700-year-old fragment from the First Temple Period on her wall for nearly 60 years.
According to the woman’s family, who wished to remain anonymous, she had picked up the small fragment during a Christian mission to Israel in 1965. While there, she worked with a number of people associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls and somehow acquired a tiny piece of one.
Her piece was something special, though. The fragment was one of just three from the First Temple Period. Most fragments are from the Second Temple Period since papyri from the First Temple Period rarely survived.
That said, the extraordinary find appears to be a rather ordinary note. Addressed to or from “Ishmael,” it reads: “Don’t send to…” and “of no help.” Researchers believe that it might be part of a larger set of instructions.
“He writes as we write,” marveled Ben-Gurion University Professor Shmuel Ahituv, who helped find the fragment. “He dips his stylus in ink, and writes.”
The parchment was ultimately donated to the IAA Dead Sea Scrolls Unit.
