Not the usual religious debate, but I thought others might find this interesting... [View all]

[Adsos Letter]

Archaeologists Explore Two Mysterious Caves Near the Dead Sea

Popular Archaeology
Vol. 8 September 2012

Hidden within desert desolation near the Dead Sea region of Ein Gedi, Israel, are two caves that at least one archaeologist suggests may possibly contain what remains of the lost archive of the Jewish Second Temple. The famous temple became one of King Herod's greatest architectural achievements and was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. at the time of the First Jewish Revolt against the Roman Empire.

Led by Dr. Haim Cohen, a team plans to continue excavating a cave known as "Cave 27", a cave where Cohen had previously conducted excavations in 2003 under the auspices of Haifa University and again in 2006, as well as exploratory investigations of a sealed cave discovered by Cohen during a 2007 survey.

Cave 27, also called the "Mikveh Cave" or Cave of the Pool at Nahal David, is best known for the Second Temple period (530 BCE to 70 CE) mikveh, or ritual cleansing pool, dated to the time of the first centuries B.C. and A.D. It was discovered and excavated just outside the cave entrance. The cave is located in a cliff approximately 400 meters above the Dead Sea and is accessible from a plateau above the cave. Among the many other finds were Early Roman period potsherds, flint tools, remains of straw matting, textiles, date pits, ropes, olive pits, animal bones, two coins of Agrippa I, a glass bottle, an iron trilobate arrowhead from the Early Roman period, a pottery seal with a geometric decoration considered to be from the Chalcolithic period, and an ashen hearth. The most intriguing questions, however, surround the presence of the mikveh at the entrance to the cave, a relatively unusual location for such a feature.

http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/september-2012/article/archaeologists-explore-two-mysterious-caves-near-the-dead-sea

I'll be curious to see if those Second Temple archives are found and interpreted. What information might such documents contain? Anything beyond a record of sacrificial offerings collected, Temple Tax, etc.? Anyone have any insight into this?

Keeping a mikveh filled with water in consistently 100*+ surroundings must have been quite the chore, especially given the location of said mikveh...

Edited for clarity (I hope).