‘It’s a dream’: 4 Roman swords likely stolen as war booty 1,900 years ago discovered in Israeli cave

Archaeologists in Israel have discovered four well-preserved 1,900-year-old Roman swords lodged in a crevice inside a cave in the Judaean Desert — weapons that rebel Jewish forces likely seized in battle and later hid.

Of the four “rare” weapons, three with iron blades were still protected in their wooden and leather sheaths.

The blades of three of the swords measured between 24 and 26 inches (60 and 65 centimeters) with dimensions similar to Roman “spatha” swords, while the fourth had a much shorter, 18-inch (45 cm) blade and was classified as a ring-pommel sword.

All of the swords were “standard” issue and used by Roman soldiers stationed in Judaea at the time, according to a statement released by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) on Wednesday (Sept. 6).

“Finding a single sword is rare — so four? It’s a dream,” the researchers wrote in the statement. “We rubbed our eyes to believe it.”

Researchers think Judaean rebels may have hidden the cache inside the cave in what is now En Gedi Nature Reserve in northern Israel after seizing the items from the Roman army as “booty” during the Bar Kokhba Revolt, a rebellion that was led by Jews in the Roman province of Judaea and unfolded between A.D. 132 and 135.

“Obviously, the rebels did not want to be caught by the Roman authorities carrying these weapons,” Eitan Klein, IAA deputy director and one of the directors of the Judean Desert Survey Project, said in the statement.

“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.”

The swords were part of an exhibition on Wednesday promoting an article about the finding published in the new research book “New Studies in the Archaeology of the Judean Desert: Collected Papers.”

The discovery comes 50 years after a different team of researchers found a stalactite inside the cave.

The formation bore an ink inscription scrawled in ancient Hebrew script that was similar to text written during the First Temple period (957 B.C. to 586 B.C.), which began with the construction of the temple of King Solomon and ended with its destruction at the hands of the Babylonians. 

Researchers visited the cave to photograph the stalactite, hoping to find additional inscriptions. Instead, they stumbled upon the cache of swords.

“This is a dramatic and exciting discovery, touching on a specific moment in time,” Eli Escusido, director-general of the IAA, said in the statement, adding that the finding is a “unique time capsule” in Judaean history.

Four Rare And Incredibly Well-Preserved 1,900-Year-Old Roman Swords Found In Judean Desert

Archaeologists report having discovered four incredibly well-preserved Roman swords in the Judean Desert.

This very rare find was made in a small hidden cave located in an area of isolated and inaccessible cliffs north of ‘En Gedi, in the Judean Desert Nature Reserve, under the jurisdiction of the National Parks Authority. Fifty years ago, a stalactite with a fragmentary ink inscription written in ancient Hebrew script, characteristic of the First Temple period, was found.

Recently, Dr. Asaf Gayer of the Department of the Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Ariel University, geologist Boaz Langford of the Institute of Earth Sciences and the Cave Research Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority photographer, visited the cave.

Their aim was to photograph the Paleo-Hebrew inscription written on the stalactite with multispectral photography that might be able to decipher additional parts of the inscription not visible to the naked eye. While on the upper level of the cave, Asaf Gayer spotted an extremely well-preserved, Roman pilum— a shafted weapon in a deep narrow crevice. He also found pieces of worked wood in an adjacent niche that turned out to be parts of the swords’ scabbards.

The researchers reported the discovery to the Israel Antiquities Authority Archaeological Survey Team, who are conducting a systematic scientific project in the Judean Desert caves. As part of this survey, initiated by the Israel Antiquities Authority, and in cooperation with the Ministry of Heritage and the Archaeological Office for the Military Administration of Judea and Samaria, hundreds of caves have been investigated over the past six years, and 24 archaeological excavations have been carried out in selected caves, with the aim of saving the archaeological remains from the hands of looters.

The Judean Desert Cave Survey team, together with Asaf Gayer and Boaz Langford returned to the cave and carried out a meticulous survey of all the crevices in the rock, during which they were astonished to find the four Roman swords in an almost inaccessible crevice on the upper level of the cave.

Experts say the four swords are 1,900-year-old and most likely from Bar Kochba revolt that lasted from 132 to 135 C.E. Also called the Second Jewish Revolt, it was a Jewish rebellion against Roman rule in Judea led by rebel leader Simon Bar Kochba.

The most plausible scenario is that the swords were hidden in the cave sometime during the revolt, as it was dangerous for Jews to be found with Roman weapons.

“Finding a single sword is rare—so four? It’s a dream! We rubbed our eyes to believe it,” say the researchers.

The swords were exceptionally well preserved, and three were found with the iron blade inside the wooden scabbards. Leather strips and wooden and metal finds belonging to the weapons were also found in the crevice. The swords had well-fashioned handles made of wood or metal.

The length of the blades of the three swords was 60–65 cm, their dimensions identifying them as Roman spatha swords, and the fourth one was shorter with c. 45 cm long blade, identified as a ring-pommel sword.

The swords were carefully removed from the crevice in the rock and transferred to the Israel Antiquities Authority climate-controlled laboratories for preservation and conservation.

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 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 from the battlefield and purposely hidden by the Judean rebels for reuse,” says Dr. Eitan Klein, one of the directors of the Judean Desert Survey Project.

“Obviously, 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.”

Following the discovery of the swords, an archaeological excavation was undertaken in the cave by the Israel Antiquities Authority, directed by Eitan Klein, Oriya Amichay, Hagay Hamer, and Amir Ganor. The cave was excavated in its entirety, and artifacts dating to the Chalcolithic period (c. 6,000 years ago) and the Roman period (c. 2,000 years ago) were uncovered.

At the entrance to the cave, a Bar-Kokhba bronze coin from the time of the Revolt was found, possibly pointing to the time when the cave served for concealing the weapons.

The preliminary article on the swords is now published in the volume ‘New Studies in the Archaeology of the Judean Desert: Collected Papers’ and will be launched this evening (6.9) in Jerusalem at an insightful event!

The book ‘New Studies in the Archaeology of the Judean Desert: Collected Papers’ will be launched (6.9) in Jerusalem at an insightful event! In addition, the swords discussed above will be presented.

Mysterious 2,800-Year-Old Channel Installation Discovered In The City Of David, Jerusalem

Scientists are trying to solve an ancient Jerusalem mystery. What was the function of the Channel Installation discovered in the City of David National Park, dating to the days of Kings Joash and Amaziah?

An ancient channel installation, the first of its kind ever discovered in Israel, was in use around 2,800 years ago – during the First Temple period. Investigators from the police forensic unit joined to solve the mystery, but so far – to no avail.

According to researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University, “The channels were likely used to soak some type of product. Their central location indicates that the product was connected to the Palace or Temple economy”.

The excavation findings will be open for public viewing during the 24th City of David Studies of Ancient Jerusalem conference to be held next week.

What was this obscure product that was important to the economy of the city, Temple or Palace during the times of the ancient Judean Kings? Unique and large-scale production installations carved out of the rock and dating to the 9th Century BCE were unearthed in excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University in the City of David National Park, funded by the Elad Foundation.

The purpose of the installation is still unclear, but their uniqueness and location near the Temple and the Palace suggest that their products were integrated into the economy of these prominent institutions.

The excavation thus far has uncovered two installations about 10 meters apart, which may have composed one large installation. Such structures have not been found anywhere else in Israel, hence their uniqueness.

The excavators found the first installation at the northeastern end of the Givati Parking Lot excavation, which includes a series of at least nine channels that were smoothed. On top of the rock cliff that encloses the installation to the south can be found seven drain pipes, which carried liquid from the top of the cliff, which served as an activity area, to the channel installation.

Dr. Yiftah Shalev, a senior researcher at the Israel Antiquities Authority, said: “We looked at the installation and realized that we had stumbled on something unique, but since we had never seen a structure like this in Israel, we didn’t know how to interpret it. Even its date was unclear.

We brought a number of experts to the site to see if there were any residues in the soil or rock that are not visible to the naked eye, and to help us understand what flowed or stood in the channels. We wanted to check whether there were any organic remains or traces of blood, so we even recruited the help of the police forensic unit and its research colleagues around the world, but so far – to no avail.”

“The mystery only grew deeper when we found the second installation to the south,” says Prof. Yuval Gadot of Tel Aviv University’s Archeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations Department.

“This installation consists of at least five channels that transport liquids.
“Despite some differences in the way the channels were hewn and designed, it is evident that the second installation is very similar to the first, “Gadot adds.

“This time, we also managed to date when the facility fell out of use – at the end of the 9th Century BCE, during the days of the biblical kings of Judah – Joash and Amaziah. We assume that the two installations, which, as mentioned, may have been used in unison, were constructed several decades earlier.”

According to Prof. Gadot, “This is an era when we know that Jerusalem covered an area that included the City of David and the Temple Mount, which served as the heart of Jerusalem. The central location of the channels near the city’s most prominent areas indicates that the product made using them was connected to the economy of the Temple or Palace. One should note that ritual activity includes bringing agricultural animal and plant produce to the Temple; Many times, Temple visitors would bring back products that carried the sanctity of the place.”

“Since the channels don’t lead to a large drainage basin and the direction of their flow varies, it is possible that the channels, at least in the northern installation, were used to soak products – and not to drain liquids,” adds Dr. Shalev.

“The production of linen, for example, requires soaking the flax for a long time to soften it. Another possibility is that the channels held dates that were left out to be heated by the sun to produce silan (date honey), like similarly shaped installations discovered in distant places such as Oman, Bahrain and Iran.” Dr. Shalev notes that “in the near future, we will take additional soil samples from the installations, and try – once again – to identify components that can help us solve the mystery: what was the product that was important for the economy of the city, Temple or Palace?”.

According to Eli Escusido, director of the Antiquities Authority, “the ancient channel installations we have before us are fascinating and stimulate the imagination. The excavations in the City of David, which cover vast areas compared to densely populated Jerusalem, are revealing to us more and more fascinating details from the time of the Judahite kings, of which there are relatively few finds in the Old City due to modern disturbances.

High school student discovered a 1500-year-old ancient Magical Mirror

A High school student discovered an ancient “magical mirror” meant to ward off the evil eye in an archaeological excavation in northern Israel.

A few days ago, seventeen-year-old Aviv Weizman from Kiryat Motskin, near Haifa, took part in an Israel Antiquities Authority archaeological excavation at the ancient site of Usha and uncovered an exceptional find from the Byzantine period—a 1,500-year-old “magical mirror.”

Usha (also known as Osha) was a jewish village in Galilee, located about 8 kilometers southwest of the city of Nazareth. Remains of the city founded by rabbis fleeing Roman persecution in Judea were recently uncovered, revealing roads, stunning mosaic floors, ritual baths and oil and wine presses.

As part of a “Survival Course” run by the Shelah branch in the Ministry of Education, 500 high-school pupils participated in archaeological excavations around the country together with the Israel Antiquities Authority.

During the Survival Course, the young leaders take part in a 90-km survival trek from Mount Meron to Mount Hermon. During the trek, the youth participate in Israel Antiquities Authority archaeological excavations at sites located around the country that will be opened to the public in the future.

One of the places where the youth dug was the site of Usha close to Kiryat Ata, directed by the Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Hanaa Abu Uqsa Abud.

This week, the excavation produced a special find: an unusual pottery sherd that peeped out of the ground between the walls of a building. Aviv uncovered the sherd and picked it up, and showed it to Dr. Einat Ambar-Armon, Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority Northern Education Center, who recognized the find as the plaque of a magical mirror.

According to Navit Popovitch, Israel Antiquities Authority Curator of the classical Periods, “The fragment is part of a “magical mirror” from the Byzantine period, the 4th–6th centuries CE.

A glass mirror, for protection against the Evil Eye was placed in the middle of the plaque: the idea was that the evil spirit, such as a demon, who looked in the mirror, would see his own reflection, and this would protect the owner of the mirror.

Similar mirror plaques have been found in the past as funerary gifts in tombs, to protect the deceased in their journey to the world to come.”

Crusader sword found in Holy Land was bent, possibly in naval battle, X-rays reveal

A sword studded in seashells and caked in sand, found at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea near Israel, was likely dropped there by a Crusader during battle between 800 and 900 years ago, a new analysis reveals.

Divers discovered the medieval weapon, whose blade measures nearly 3 feet (88 centimeters) long and 1.8 inches (4.6 cm) wide, in 2021 during an underwater expedition. Because the sword was heavily coated in concretions, archaeologists were initially limited in what they could learn about the artifact.

However, those very same caked-on deposits also preserved the weapon. With the help of X-rays, researchers were able to “visually penetrate the layers of marine concretion and glimpse the original outline of the sword,” according to a July 23 Facebook post by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

The X-ray revealed that the blade was bent. Swords damaged during battle can be bent back into shape at a later date, so the fact that this 12th- to 13th-century weapon — dubbed the Newe-Yam sword — remained bent and was not in a sheath known as a scabbard led archaeologists to conclude that it was likely damaged during the Crusades, according to a new study published in the July issue of the journal ‘Atiqot.

The Crusades were a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims that unfolded between A.D. 1095 and 1291.

“The sword was used by a Crusader warrior who settled in the country after the First Crusade and established the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1099,” co-author Jacob Sharvit, director of the marine archaeology unit of the IAA, wrote in the Facebook post.

“Considering the bloody battles that took place in the country between the Crusaders and the Muslims, known from several historical sources, we could expect to find more such swords. In practice, we mostly find fragments, very few whole swords.”

He added, “So far, seven swords from this period have been found in the country, most of them discovered in the sea. Swords were not usually discarded, but over the years, once they were no longer in use, the metal was recycled for other uses.”

Swords were considered valuable weaponry at that time, and they would’ve been among a Crusader’s prized possessions. So losing one to the sea during a naval battle would have been detrimental, or even fatal.

“The sword was part of a knight’s or warrior’s personal equipment,” lead author Joppe Gosker, an archaeologist with the IAA, wrote in the Facebook post. “It was the main weapon in face-to-face combat in those days.

Swords required a lot of quality iron and were therefore expensive. In addition, sword fighting required training and practice, and therefore, only the nobility and professional soldiers fought with swords.”

While scans of the seafloor near the sword’s resting place didn’t reveal any human remains, researchers wouldn’t be surprised if the soldier were also buried there.

“The warrior may still lie undiscovered in the depths, to be revealed one day by the shifting sands,” the researchers wrote in the Facebook post

A rare 2,500-year-old marble disc, designed to protect ancient ships and ward off the evil eye discovered near Palmachim Beach

A rare 2,500-year-old marble disc designed to protect ancient ships and ward off the evil eye was discovered by a lifeguard diving at sea and turned over to the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The Israel Antiquities Authority announced from social media on July 18 that the object the lifeguard turned over was a 2,500-year-old, eye-shaped marble disc that was attached to ships to ward off the evil eye.

Experts say the relic, found during a dive by lifeguard David Shalom at the Yavne-Yam archaeological site near Palmachim Beach, dates back to the 5th to 4th centuries BC.

Yaakov Sharvit, Director of the Marine Archaeology Unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority, explains: “From drawings on pottery, mosaics, and ancient coins, as well as from historical sources from the 5th century BCE, we learn that this design was common on ships’ bows and served to protect against the evil eye and envy, aided navigation, and acted as a pair of eyes looking ahead and warning of danger.

This decoration is still common today on modern ships in Portugal, Malta, Greece, and the far east.”

The large white marble disc, 20 cm in diameter, is flat on one side and curved on the other, and it has a central cavity with traces of paint appearing as two circles around the center.

It is identified as an eye motif, in Greek “ophtalmoi,” and such discs adorned the bows of ancient warships and merchant’s vessels.

Lead or bronze nails attached the center of the disc to the ship’s hull. Archaeologists have turned up a wealth of artifacts in the same area.

Although this artifact was once common and one would expect to find many similar artifacts, it is, in fact, rare. So far, only four similar ancient items have been discovered in the Mediterranean: two from the wreck of an ancient merchant ship found at the Tektaş Burnu site off the western coast of Turkey, between the islands of Samos and Kios, dating to 440–425 BCE, and two on the Mediterranean coast of Israel—one from the Carmel Beach and the other, just discovered, on the Yavneh-Yam coast.

In water surveys conducted by the Marine Archaeology Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority since the 1980s, finds from shipwrecked ships testifying to extensive commercial activity at the site were discovered.

Researchers Use AI to Read Ancient Mesopotamian Texts

Scholars at Tel Aviv University and Ariel University, in Israel, have used artificial intelligence to translate fragments of ancient cuneiform texts on stone tablets into English with what they say is a high degree of accuracy.

They call the project “another major step toward the preservation and dissemination of the cultural heritage of ancient Mesopotamia.”

The scholars presented the first neural machine translation from Akkadian into English in the May issue of PNAS Nexus. Their results are “on par with those produced by an average machine translation from one modern language to another,” noted Arkeonews.

In the last 200 years, archaeologists have found hundreds of thousands of texts that tell the history of ancient Mesopotamia, most of them written in Sumerian or Akkadian, explained the authors. But most remain untranslated because of their vast quantity and the small number of experts who can read them, as well as the fact that most of the texts are fragmentary.

Furthermore, cuneiform signs are polyvalent, there are many different kinds of texts, and even the names of people and places can be written as complex sentences.

“First, let me state that we believe that A.I. will not replace philological work,” said Luis Sáenz, of the Digital Pasts Lab in the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Ariel University, one of the authors, in an email to Artnet News.

“We want to speed up the process. Our hope is that A.I. will eventually be able to help both Assyriologists and non-Assyriologists read cuneiform texts in the future.”

This is just the latest example of scientists using the newest tools to work with the oldest materials.

The University of Kentucky researchers developed an A.I. system to read scrolls that were incinerated when Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year 79, and archaeologists in Italy are working on a robot that uses A.I. to reconstruct ancient relics from their scattered shards.

“There are, of course, limitations to the model,” says Sáenz. “The lack of context makes ancient languages difficult to translate since we only have fragments of texts. Fragments with only one or two lines are extremely difficult to work with for A.I.

The future will require more tools to digitize data published in papers in order to keep training the model and to improve the results. Also, a user-friendly web-based platform for the public is important.”

Storms uncover precious marble cargo from a 1,800-year-old Mediterranean shipwreck in Israel

Numerous rare marble artifacts have been found at the site of a 1,800-year-old shipwreck in shallow waters just 200 meters off the coast of the Israeli coastal town of Beit Yanai.

Approximately three weeks ago while swimming, recreational sea swimmer Gideon Harris took a dive of about four meters and stumbled upon a treasure trove of marble columns.

This is the oldest sea cargo of its kind ever discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean, dating back to the time of the Roman Empire.

The huge haul includes approximately 44 tons of Roman-period marble architectural pieces, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said in a statement.

The raw materials were most likely from Turkey and were on their way to a port in the southern Holy Land; archaeologists hope to find ship wood remains during excavations next week.

The marble blocks may have been intended to become part of an elaborate public building—perhaps a temple or theater.

The IAA believes that this shipwrecked cargo, which was exposed during winter storms that swept away centuries of sand, is the oldest of its kind known in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The merchant ship was probably destined for a port along the coast of the southern Levant, but ran into trouble en route, Koby Sharvit, director of the underwater archaeology unit at the IAA, said in the statement.

Initial underwater site investigations have uncovered decorated Corinthian capitals, additional partially carved capitals, as well as a massive 6-meter marble architrave or door lintel in the ship’s hold.

“From the size of the architectural elements, we can calculate the dimensions of the ship; we are talking about a merchant ship that could bear a cargo of at least 200 tons,” said Sharvit.

“These fine pieces are characteristic of large-scale, majestic public buildings. Even in Roman Caesarea, such architectural elements were made of local stone covered with white plaster to appear like marble. Here we are talking about genuine marble,” Sharvit explains.

Sharvit, the IAA’s underwater archaeology unit director, confirmed that there are no visible remains of the ship on the sea floor. He stated that the IAA will begin an underwater excavation with students from the University of Rhode Island next week in the hopes of discovering waterlogged wood from beneath the massive marble blocks, or a nearby underwater sand dune that may have buried and preserved parts of the ship.