from these caves and because of the nature and importance of the documents that have come from them. Though about 273 holes and caves in the cliffs along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from Ḥajar el-ʾAṣbaḥ (=Hebrew ʾEben habbohen, or “the stone of Bohan,” Josh 15:6) to Ras Feshkha, a stretch of about eight kilometers, were scoured by archaeologists (10–29 March 1952), artifacts showing habitation of the caves were found in only 39 of them; of these, 25 caves had artifacts and pottery similar
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