A remarkable archaeological find – a cache of well-preserved Roman weapons from 1,900 years ago – was recently uncovered in the Judean Desert. Four Roman swords and a shafted weapon were among the found artifacts, which are believed to have been hidden by the Jews during their rebellion against the Romans, having been seized from the Roman forces.
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Video: Clay candle found near Modiin / Israel Antiquities Authority
The weapons were discovered in a cave at the 'En Gedi Nature Reserve, making it hard to find. A fragmentary ink inscription from the First Temple period was also found in the cave in the past, containing ancient Hebrew script and it is thanks to multispectral photography used on the scripts that scholars managed to find the unexpected discovery of the weapons.
The four Roman swords, preserved at remarkable quality, were found in a crevice in the cave. Three of them had iron blades inside wooden scabbards, while the fourth had a shorter blade and was identified as a ring-pommel sword. The swords have handles made of wood or metal. Their dimensions indicated that three were Roman spatha swords.
"The initial examination of the assemblage confirmed that these were standard swords employed by the Roman soldiers stationed in Judea in the Roman period," the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement.
"The hiding of the swords and the pilum in deep cracks in the isolated cave north of 'En Gedi, hints that the weapons were taken as booty from Roman soldiers or the battlefield, and purposely hidden by the Judean rebels for reuse," Dr. Eitan Klein, one of the directors of the Judean Desert Survey Project said. "The rebels did not want to be caught by the Roman authorities carrying these weapons. We are just beginning the research on the cave and the weapon cache discovered in it, aiming to try to find out who owned the swords, and where, when, and by whom they were manufactured. We will try to pinpoint the historical event that led to the caching of these weapons in the cave and determine whether it was at the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt in 132–135 CE."
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