Ketef Hinnom Silver Scrolls
In the world of biblical archaeology, size can be deceiving. The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1947, are massive, hundreds of documents filling an entire wing of a museum. But in 1979, an excavation in Jerusalem uncovered two artifacts so small they could be mistaken for cigarette butts. These were the Ketef Hinnom Silver Scrolls . While they lack the physical grandeur of the Qumran library, they possess a chronological weight that surpasses it. These two tiny amulets contain the oldest biblical text ever discovered, pushing the physical evidence of Scripture back to the days of the First Temple, some 400 years before the Dead Sea Scrolls were written. The discovery took place on a rocky shoulder of the Hinnom Valley (Ketef Hinnom) in Jerusalem, overlooking Mount Zion. Archaeologist Gabriel Barkay was excavating a series of burial caves dating to the late First Temple period (c. 7th century BC). The caves appeared to have been looted centuries ago. However, in Cave 24 , ...