Latest news with #biblicaltexts
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The Independent
4 days ago
- Science
- The Independent
Dead Sea Scrolls mystery deepens as AI finds manuscripts to be much older than thought
Many of the manuscripts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls may be much older than previously thought, according to a new study that could transform our understanding of their Jewish and Christian origins. The mysterious scrolls are a collection of ancient Jewish texts mainly written in Hebrew that were found in 1947 by nomadic Arab shepherds looking for a lost sheep. They are the oldest Bible texts ever found, containing passages of the Old Testament from over 1,800 to 2,000 years ago. Until now, a study of ancient handwriting suggests most of the scrolls are from the third century BC to the second century AD. Some date-bearing manuscripts written in Aramaic/Hebrew have been estimated to be from the fifth or fourth centuries BC, and the late first and early second century AD. But since most of the scrolls do not have any other date-bearing manuscripts for reference, the ages of the individual manuscripts haven't been precisely estimated. Archaeologists have yet to accurately date over a thousand manuscripts and fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls collection. Now, researchers have combined radiocarbon dating and an AI prediction model to arrive at a more accurate estimate of the age of individual manuscripts. Scientists found that two biblical scroll fragments of the scrolls come from the same time as their presumed biblical authors. These fragments have been objectively dated to between the fourth century BC and the second century AD, according to the latest study published in the journal PLOS One. In the study, scientists trained their AI date-prediction model to analyse handwritten ink-trace patterns and digitised manuscripts. The model was trained to analyse intricate geometries of the ink trace, looking into the curvature of each character's shape, helping it probe the texts beyond what traditional palaeography offered. Researchers cross-verified the AI model with texts that have already been convincingly dated. They found that it could predict the age of manuscripts just from the writing style with an uncertainty of some 30 years. Scientists then used the AI to date roughly one thousand Dead Sea manuscripts. They first made the model analyse the digitised images of 135 scrolls and let professional palaeographers evaluate the AI's predictions. It then confirmed that many Dead Sea Scrolls are much older than previously thought, transforming our understanding of the development of two ancient Jewish scripts called "Hasmonaean" and "Herodian." Scroll fragments written in these scripts could belong to the late second century BC instead of the current prevailing view of the mid-first century BC. Manuscripts in the Hasmonaean-type script could be older than their current estimate of 150 BC to 50 BC, researchers found. It still remains a mystery who exactly wrote the manuscripts. Researchers suspect it was an anonymous author from the Hellenistic period of the third century BC. The latest findings impact our understanding of political and intellectual developments in the eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenistic and early Roman periods, scientists say.
The National
5 days ago
- Science
- The National
Dead Sea Scrolls a century older than previously thought
Fragments from a collection of ancient Jewish manuscripts found on the northern shores of the Dead Sea are 100 years older than previously thought, a study found. The Dead Sea Scrolls, as they are best known, were discovered in the mid 20th century at the Qumran caves in the occupied West Bank. They include the oldest surviving manuscripts of entire books from the Bible, and for decades were generally dated from the 3rd to 2nd century BCE. But new AI technologies have allowed researchers to date some of the scrolls back to the 4th century BCE. Two of the biblical scrolls – the Book of Daniel and Ecclesiasts - are now believed to have come from the time of their presumed authors. The Book of Daniel is long believed to have been completed in the 160s BCE and Enoch's findings placed the scroll back in the same time period. The same was true for a scroll fragment of the Ecclesiastes, which is commonly assumed to have been written by an anonymous author in the 3rd century BCE. Researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands developed a date-prediction programme called Enoch, which they say provides more accurate date estimates for individual manuscripts. Their findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS on Wednesday. Enoch uses AI to combine the traditional study of old handwriting with radiocarbon dating, which calculates the age of a material by measuring the amount of a specific carbon molecule in the sample. Traditionally, researchers studying ancient handwriting have been unable to more accurately date texts between 4th and 2nd century BCE, but researchers say this 'gap' has now been closed through Enoch's additional use of carbon dating. They say that the programme can predict radio carbon-based dates and handwriting style with an uncertainty of about 30 years. The work was a collaboration between historians of the ancient world and computer scientists, led by Mladen Popovic, professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism and director of the Qumran Institute and Dr Maruf Dhali, assistant professor in Artificial Intelligence. The first results showed that many of the texts were much older than previously thought. 'This also changes how researchers should interpret the development of two ancient Jewish script styles which are called 'Hasmonaean' and 'Herodian',' the researchers said. The two scripts are now believed to have existed at the same time since the second century BCE, and manuscripts in the Hasmonian script could be older than their current estimate of 150-50 BCE. 'This new chronology of the scrolls significantly impacts our understanding of political and intellectual developments in the eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenistic and early Roman periods -late fourth century BCE until second century CE,' the authors said. 'It allows for new insights to be developed about literacy in ancient Judaea in relation to historical, political, and cultural developments such as urbanization, the rise of the Hasmonaean dynasty, and the rise and development of religious groups such as those behind the Dead Sea Scrolls and the early Christians,' they said.
ABC News
5 days ago
- Science
- ABC News
Age of Dead Sea Scrolls pushed back by new AI study
The Dead Sea Scrolls are one of the most significant troves of religious manuscripts ever found, with many being the oldest surviving copies of biblical texts. First found by a Bedouin shepherd, the hundreds of ancient scrolls — excavated from the Qumran caves, in the West Bank, between 1946 and 1956 — have been a boon to those studying the history of Judaism and Christianity. But while we know the scrolls are all between 2,500 and 1,800 years old, just a fraction have dates written on them indicating when they were first composed. Figuring out the ages of the other scrolls can help scholars to understand how Judaism evolved, and which scripts and ideas were important at different times. Now an international team of researchers has aimed to fill some gaps in the Dead Sea Scrolls' timeline using a combination of artificial intelligence (AI), carbon dating and handwriting analysis. In the journal PLOS One, they proposed new ages for more than 100 scroll fragments, and found many to be older than previously thought. Gareth Wearne, a researcher in biblical studies and the history of ancient Israel at Australian Catholic University, said the research could change our understanding of the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls. "It potentially has implications for how we think about how the material came to be copied and disseminated at the beginning of the process that ultimately led to them being included in the biblical canon," Dr Wearne, who was not involved with the study, said. Radiocarbon dating is often relied on in archaeology to find the age of an artefact, and the Dead Sea Scrolls are no exception. But the technique is vulnerable to contamination, and often yields imprecise results, particularly for the period when the Dead Sea Scrolls were written: there are fewer artefacts with known dates to calibrate the scrolls' age against. Plus, as University of Groningen archaeologist and study lead author Mladen Popović pointed out, "radiocarbon dating is a destructive method". Researchers now only need a few thousandths of a gram of material to carbon-date it, but artefacts with the cultural importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls are incredibly precious. Another common technique used to study the scrolls is palaeography, or the study of handwriting, which looks at the way scripts have changed over centuries. But this method is also vulnerable to inaccuracies. So researchers such as Professor Popović and his colleagues have looked for ways to date the scrolls when other methods fall short. In their new study, the team carbon dated 24 Dead Sea Scroll samples. The researchers fed digital images of the 24 dated scrolls into a machine learning model — a type of AI — which was designed to analyse the handwriting in the scrolls. They then had the AI predict the ages of 135 other scrolls, based on their handwriting and scripts. The researchers named their AI model Enoch, after a figure depicted in the book of Genesis who they deemed a "science hero". Enoch's predictions, and the carbon dated samples, found many of the scrolls were older than previously thought — sometimes by decades, sometimes by a few years. The study suggested two of the Dead Sea Scrolls may be texts contemporary to when they were first written, or close to it. One scroll, which contains a fragment from the book of Daniel, was carbon dated to between 230 and 160 BC — up to 100 years older than previous estimates. This means it overlaps with when the text was believed to be written, based on historical events it refers to. Another scroll, containing text from Ecclesiastes, was dated with the Enoch AI to the third century BC. The text had previously thought to have been created roughly in the mid-second century BC based on how it aligned with the cultural movements of the era. If the dating is correct, these two fragments would be the first-known examples of biblical texts from the time when the work was composed. Expert palaeographers checked the AI's results, and found 79 per cent of them to be realistic predictions. Dr Wearne said the findings were "the single greatest step forward since the development of the original, conventional dating system" in the 1940s. "It then requires us to think about the social and the historical context in which the scrolls were produced in new ways." Andrea Jalandoni, an archaeologist at Griffith University who wasn't involved with the research, said the addition of other techniques strengthened the reliability of the AI. "They've pinned it with radiocarbon and then evaluated it with expert palaeographers," Dr Jalandoni said. But, she said, the AI model was trained on a small sample size, which could complicate its reliability. Professor Popović plans to apply the Enoch model to more Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as other ancient Aramaic texts like the Elephantine Papyri. "The techniques and methods we developed are applicable to other handwritten [collections of text]," he said. Dr Jalandoni, who studies rock art in Australia and South-East Asia, said the study gave her ideas for her own research. "I was looking at this and thinking: 'Wow, I wonder if I can do this with rock art,'" Dr Jalandoni said. "We have some dates for rock art, but not a lot." Australian rock art has very little carbon in it, making carbon dating a fruitless task so archaeologists have to rely on other dating methods. "If we could … create a machine learning model that can predict dates that line up with more methods, I think it's the way to go," Dr Jalandoni said.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Many of Dead Sea scrolls may be older than thought, experts say
Many of the Dead Sea scrolls could be older than previously thought, with some biblical texts dating from the time of their original authors, researchers say. The first of the ancient scrolls were discovered in the caves of Qumran in the Judean desert by Bedouin shepherds in the mid-20th century. The manuscripts range from legal documents to parts of the Hebrew Bible, and are thought to date from around the third century BCE to the second century CE. Now researchers have used artificial intelligence to glean fresh insights into the dates of individual scrolls – findings experts suggest could challenge ideas about when, where and by whom they were produced. 'It's like a time machine. So we can shake hands with these people from 2,000 years ago, and we can put them in time much better now, said Prof Mladen Popović, first author of the research from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. While some scrolls were radiocarbon dated in the 1990s, Popović said scholars did not tackle the problem of castor oil contamination – a substance applied in the 1950s to help experts read the manuscripts, but which could skew results. In addition, many of the scrolls had only been dated by handwriting analysis. Writing in the journal Plos One, the team report how they attempted radiocarbon dating of 30 samples from different manuscripts found at four sites and thought to span five centuries. Crucially, the team first cleaned the samples to remove the castor oil contamination. The researchers successfully radiocarbon-dated 27 samples, finding that while two were younger than handwriting analysis had suggested, many were older. Among other findings, the researchers discovered two different writing styles, known as Hasmonean and Herodian scripts, coexisted for a much longer period than previously thought, while a sample from a manuscript called 4Q114 – which contains verses from the book of Daniel – was older than traditional palaeography had suggested. 'It was previously dated to the late second century BCE, a generation after the author of the Book of Daniel. Now, with our study we move back in time contemporary to that author,' said Popović. The team then used a type of AI known as machine learning to build a model they called Enoch – a nod to a biblical figure associated with scientific knowledge. The team trained Enoch by feeding it 62 digital images of ink traces from 24 of the radiocarbon dated manuscripts, together with the carbon-14 dates. They then verified the model by showing Enoch a further 13 images from the same manuscripts. In 85% of cases the model produced ages that tallied with the radiocarbon dates, and in many cases produced a smaller range of probable dates than obtained from radiocarbon dating alone. 'What we have created is a very robust tool that is empirically based – based on physics and on geometry,' said Popović. When Enoch was presented with images from 135 undated manuscripts it had not previously seen, it realistically dated 79% of them – as judged by expert palaeographers. Popović added those deemed unrealistic might have had problematic data, such as poor quality images. The system has already produced new insights including that a copy of the biblical book Ecclesiastes dates from the time of the book's presumed author. Popović said Enoch meant the age of further scrolls could now be uncovered without radiocarbon dating – a process that requires the destruction of small samples. 'There are more than 1,000 Dead Sea scrolls manuscripts so our study is a first but significant step, opening a door unto history with new possibilities for research,' he said. Prof emerita Joan Taylor of King's College London, said the results would have a major impact on Qumran studies. 'These results mean that most of the manuscripts found in the caves near Qumran would not have been written at the site of Qumran, which was not occupied until later,' she said. However, Dr Matthew Collins of the University of Chester cautioned that radiocarbon dating only shed light on the age of the parchment, not when it was written on, while there were also questions about how stylistically representative the small number of training samples were for different periods in time. 'Overall, this is an important and welcome study, and one which may provide us with a significant new tool in our armoury for dating these texts,' he said. 'Nevertheless, it's one that we should adopt with caution, and in careful conjunction with other evidence.'
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Science
- Daily Mail
Dead Sea Scroll breakthrough: AI analysis proves the ancient manuscripts are even OLDER than we thought
The Dead Sea Scrolls are surely among the most historically and biblically important objects known to humankind. Found in caves near the Dead Sea nearly 100 years ago, these ancient manuscripts have transformed understanding of Jewish and Christian origins. Penned upon the 1,000 scrolls were profound religious texts, hymns, prayers, legal codes, commentaries and more. Until now, the scrolls have been assumed to date somewhere between the third century BC and the first century AD. But according to a new AI analysis, some of the scrolls date back as far as the fourth century BC – nearly 2,500 years ago. While the experts only analysed about a tenth of all the Dead Sea Scrolls, they hope AI could continue to reveal more about their history. 'Often individual manuscript dates are older than previously thought,' lead study author Professor Mladen Popović at the University of Groningen told MailOnline. 'The strength and significance of the AI tool that we have developed is that it makes it possible to provide much more accurate date estimates.' First found in 1946 in the Qumran Caves of the Judaean Desert, near the Dead Sea, the scrolls comprise around 1,000 ancient manuscripts in thousands of fragments. The Dead Sea Scrolls were made of parchment from processed animal hide known as vellum, but also plant matter called papyrus and sheets of metal. The text upon them was penned in four languages – Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Nabataean (language of the ancient Arab Nabatean people). But their religious significance is largely because the scrolls include some early Hebrew texts that would go on to form part of the Old Testament of the Bible. Little has been known about the scribe or scribes who laboured to produce the individual scrolls – as the works were not signed. It is sometimes possible to determine the approximate age of undated manuscripts by evaluating handwriting – but to use this method, there needs to be enough manuscripts with accurate dates to create a reliable timeline of handwriting styles. For the study, researchers used radiocarbon dating to work out the age of historic manuscripts from various sites in modern-day Israel and the West Bank. They then then used a previously-developed AI neural network called BiNet to study the handwriting styles of each document, right down to the ink-trace patterns. How old are the Dead Sea Scrolls? Until now, the scrolls have been assumed to date somewhere between the third century BC and the first century AD. But according to the study, some of the scrolls date back as far as the fourth century BC - nearly 2,500 years ago. The ancient manuscripts that were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in 11 caves near Khirbet Qumran, on the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea. By pairing those two datasets together, the team could create an AI program called 'Enoch' that could use the handwriting style of other manuscripts from the region to objectively determine an approximate age range – including the Dead Sea Scrolls. To test the program, ancient handwriting experts evaluated Enoch's age estimates for 135 of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The experts determined that 79 per cent of the AI's estimates were 'realistic', while the remaining 21 per cent were determined too old, too young or indecisive. Crucially, both the AI and radiocarbon dating methods estimated older ages for many of the Dead Sea Scrolls than did traditional handwriting analysis. 'In general, the date predictions by Enoch for individual manuscripts moves within the timeframe of late fourth century BC until second century AD,' Professor Popović told MailOnline. 'But within that time frame more manuscripts are now older, being dated to the first half of the second century BC, the third century BC and in two cases even into the late fourth century BC.' Professor Popović said his team 'have not yet dated all manuscripts', so potentially more is to be learned about the overall age of the scrolls. 'There are more than 1,000 Dead Sea Scrolls so our study is a first but significant step, opening a door unto history with new possibilities for research,' he said. Until now, the dating of individual manuscripts was mostly based on 'palaeography' – the study of ancient handwriting alone. But the new study, published in the journal PLOS One, combines palaeography with AI and radiocarbon dating to get a fuller picture. Enoch also gives researchers a powerful new tool that can refine estimates for specific manuscripts, often to an accuracy of only plus or minus 50 years. The authors say: 'With the Enoch tool we have opened a new door into the ancient world, like a time machine, that allows us to study the hands that wrote the Bible. 'It is very exciting to set a significant step into solving the dating problem of the Dead Sea Scrolls and also creating a new tool that could be used to study other partially dated manuscript collections from history.' The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered between 1946 and 1956 and date back 2,000 years Discovered between 1946 and 1956, the Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of ancient manuscripts dating back to 2,000 years ago - or more. The texts include tends of thousands of parchment and papyrus fragments and in rare cases entire manuscripts. They contain parts of what is now known as the Hebrew Bible as well as a range of extra-biblical documents. The scrolls were found by shepherd Muhammed Edh-Dhib as he searched for a stray among the limestone cliffs at Khirbet Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea in what was then British Mandate Palestine - now the West Bank. The story goes that in a cave in the dark crevice of a steep rocky hillside, Muhammed hurled a stone into the dark interior and was startled to hear the sound of breaking pots. Venturing inside, the young Bedouin found a mysterious collection of large clay jars in which he found old scrolls, some wrapped in linen and blackened with age. The texts have since been excavated by archaeologists, who are now racing to digitise their contents before they deteriorate beyond legibility. The texts are of great historical and religious significance and include the earliest known surviving copies of biblical and extra-biblical documents, as well as preserving evidence of diversity in late Second Temple Judaism.
