Discovery of the Samaria Papyri

As with many of the riverbeds found in the central and Judaean hill country, several thousand caves mark the limestone cliffs and hills. Bedouins of the Ta’amireh tribe—who due to a drought moved north of their normal pasture lands—discovered a cave containing materials dating from the fourth century bc (Lapp and Lapp, “Account,” 1–6). The Ta’amireh tribe had initially gained recognition in 1947 for the first discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Qumran Cave 1. Their movement north in the winter of 1962 brought them to a new area of caves. Some of these caves were small, while others had numerous passageways (N. Lapp, “Daliyeh, Wadi-ed” [2000], 161). They found the caves by digging test pits through layers of bat droppings, then tapping the limestone exterior to listen for sounds that indicated passageways (Lapp and Lapp, “Account,” 2–3).

In a cave called Mugharet Abu-Shinjeh (Cave of the Father of the Dagger), Bedouins discovered numerous human remains, ancient pots, a gold ring, bullae (stamped clay seals), beads, coins, and some still-sealed scrolls and fragments of papyri (Lapp and Lapp, “Account,” 3; N. Lapp, “Daliyeh, Wadi-ed” [2000], 161). Many of the scrolls were fragmentary and some were significantly damaged. Paul and Nancy Lapp, of the American School of Oriental Research, concluded based on the style of script that the papyri could be dated to the fourth century bc (Cross, “Discovery,” 110; Dušek, Les manuscrits, 5–7).