Image Details

COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY/PHOTO BY BRENT SEALES

TOO FRAGILE TO UNROLL, this charred scroll was unwrapped digitally, using advanced digital technology, thereby revealing the first two chapters of the Book of Leviticus. It was discovered in an archaeological excavation of a village synagogue in Ein Gedi, an oasis on the western shore of the Dead Sea. The Jewish settlement is believed to have been destroyed c. 600 C.E. The handwriting and a Carbon-14 test suggest that the document dates to c. 300 C.E., which means that the scroll was in use for about three centuries. This image shows the actual artifact.