Thursday, September 07, 2023

Amazing New Archaeological Find In Israel

It's not everyday that a bunch of Roman swords in good shape get discovered after being hidden away for 2,000 years.

i24news:  Rare cache of Roman weapons discovered in Judean Desert cave 

A fascinating discovery in the Judean Desert: archaeologists unearthed a cache of well-preserved Roman weapons, including four swords and a shafted pilum weapon, believed to be around 1,900-years-old. 

The ancient artifacts were hidden in a crevice inside a cave located in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve.

Interestingly, the weapons were only found by a happy bit of serendipity: An archaeologist was visiting the cave to examine another new and important, but chronologically earlier and distinct find,  in the same cave - a much earlier inscription from the First Temple Period - and happened to see the weapons cache as he examined the inscription.

The weapons likely date back to the Bar Kochba Revolt, and were hidden sometime between 132 and 135 CE. 

Impressively, three of the four swords include their sheaths and are in rather good condition for their age as can be seen in this picture of the artifacts on display from StandWithUs:


The cave system itself has tons of artifacts in it and evidence of habitation going back 6,000 years, and new finds keep being discovered. The dry Judean desert air has preserved lots and lots of historical artifacts that continue to be discovered as archaeologists probe the cave’s history and secrets.

5 comments:

Chuck Pergiel said...

Off topic, but I wonder what you think of this:
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/09/your-gun-safe-your-privacy-and-your.html

Matthew W said...

Awesome find !!!

Old NFO said...

Those are amazing!

OldAFSarge said...

Unbelievable find and very nicely preserved.

Aaron said...

Chuck Pergiel: Lots to unpack on that one, and Liberty really stepped in it nicely, and facts are still coming out. One fun question is does Liberty disclose that they have an overrode combo to the safe in their materials when they sell you the safe? If so then while a definite potential security breach it they informed you of that possibility it is on you - if they did not, that;s something else entirely. Now, If the gov had a warrant then realistically they will be getting into the safe one way or the other. It seems so far that the agents did not however have a subpoena or warrant to Liberty itself for that override so that creates a big issue that Liberty may have improperly disclosed it, but a lot of this is still supposition and I'm still waiting for further facts to come out to be able to actually analyze what occurred.

Matthew W.: That it is!

Old NFO: Yep, those are some amazing artifacts for sure.

OldAFSarge: Yep, talk about the find of a lifetime!