Image Details

COURTESY OF THE LEON LEVY DEAD SEA SCROLLS DIGITAL LIBRARY, IAA/PHOTO BY SHAI HALEVI

TOO FRAGILE TO UNROLL, this charred scroll was unwrapped digitally, using advanced digital technology, thereby revealing the fi rst 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. A portion of the read segment (shown here) is composed of two images merged after the digital “unrolling.”