Recent AI analyses suggest that many of the Dead Sea Scrolls could be older than previously believed by experts.
This collection includes around 1,000 ancient texts written on animal skins, papyrus, and copper. The Dead Sea Scrolls feature early versions of Hebrew Bible texts, encompassing copies of Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, Kings, and Deuteronomy.
Researchers have utilized an AI program named Enoch to examine handwritten patterns on these scrolls, suggesting they might predate earlier assumptions. The authors of this study, published on June 4th in PLOS 1, regard their findings as a crucial advancement in dating some of the earliest biblical texts. Yet, not all scholars are convinced by these results.
“The Enoch tool has opened a portal to the ancient world akin to a time machine, enabling the study of biblical handwritten texts,” stated Mladen Popović, Director of the Qumran Institute at the University of Groningen, Netherlands. He added, “In particular, we have established for the first time that two fragments of biblical scrolls are from the time of their authors, contradicting earlier assumptions.”
The ancient texts were discovered by Bedouin shepherds in caves in Qumran on the West Bank between 1946 and 1947. They include legal documents, calendars, sections of the Hebrew Bible, and poems written in both Aramaic and Greek.
Previous dating methods relied on the stylistic features of ancient writing systems, a practice that dates back to the 1990s. However, some recent manuscripts were treated with caster oil to improve readability, which is considered a contaminant affecting radiocarbon dating, making the reliability of these techniques a matter of debate.
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To conduct their research, the team cleaned 30 samples from various manuscripts, effectively eliminating contaminants, and then conducted radiocarbon dating on 27 of these. They discovered that two scroll fragments were younger than earlier assessments, while others were older.
Subsequently, scientists developed the Enoch AI model, training it on the handwriting from 24 new manuscripts along with their radiocarbon dates. They validated the model using another 13 images from the same manuscripts and presented 135 undated texts, finding that scholars agreed with the AI’s estimates 79% of the time.
Still, the remaining 21% of the scrolls remain enigmatic, as Enoch provided various dates that suggest they could be older, more challenging to date, or even a century younger than earlier evaluations.
This analysis also identified two distinct writing styles, known as Hasmon and Herod’s scripts, associated with the Hasmon dynasty of the Jews and Herod, the Roman client king, respectively, possibly overlapping for longer than previously recognized.
Nonetheless, Enoch affirms earlier findings, particularly for a scroll named 4Q114, which contains three chapters from the Book of Daniel. Analysts originally estimated this text was written during the height of the Maccabee Uprising around 165 BC, (part of the Hanukkah narrative), as a response to the exaggeration of Antiochus IV at the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The AI model proposes dates within a range between 230 BC and 160 BC.
However, for some observers, these findings are hardly a revelation.
“The results of this study are intriguing and perhaps significant, but they do not shake the foundations,” commented Christopher Rollston, a professor at George Washington University and chair of the Bible and Near Eastern Languages and Civilization department, in an email to Live Science. “Most of the conclusions in this article, like the later period, echo what seasoned archaeologists have been asserting for over 60 years,” he added, referencing the work of Frank Moore Cross.
Rollston further criticized the idea that new tools could allow researchers to “study the biblical handwriting” as “at least a gross exaggeration.” He pointed out that Hebrew Bible manuscripts are not dated to the First Temple period (1200-586 BC) when they were first composed, nor to the early Second Temple period (538-70 BC).
He acknowledged that while AI can be a useful tool, it should be one of several techniques employed to study ancient texts like the Dead Sea Scrolls.
“Enoch cannot be the sole instrument in the toolkit for those aiming to determine a manuscript’s date of writing. While machines aid in distinguishing script features, the expertise of skilled archaeologists remains equally valuable as machine learning methods.”
Source: www.livescience.com