An Extremely rare document from the First Temple-period is exposed

In a joint intelligence operation, the Antiquities theft Prevention Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority, and Professor Shmuel Ahituv, recipient of the Israel Prize for Biblical Studies, with the help of the Ministry of Culture and Sport and the Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage, succeeded in repatriating a First Temple-period document, dated to the late seventh or early sixth century BCE. The document is written in ancient Hebrew script on papyrus, and it was probably found in the Judean Desert caves. The extremely rare document is composed of four torn lines that begin with the words “To Ishmael send….”, the text hinting that it is a fragment of a letter containing instructions to the recipient. Based on the writing, it is proposed to date the ‘Ishmael Papyrus’ to the seventh to sixth centuries BCE, joining only two other documents from this period in the Israel Antiquities Authority Dead Sea Scrolls collection. All three papyri come from the Judean Desert, where the dry climate enables the pr