Palestinians caught trying to sell ancient Hebrew legal text

BBC:

Israeli authorities say they have recovered a papyrus document which appears to be nearly 2,000 years old.

The document measures 15cm by 15cm (6in by 6in), and contains 15 lines of ancient Hebrew script.

It appears to be a legal instruction, transferring a widow's property to her late husband's brother.

It was seized from two Palestinian men in a sting operation at a Jerusalem hotel, police said. The two could face several years in jail.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said on Wednesday that the scroll was an "exceptional archeological document, of the like but a few exist," reported Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

It said similar scrolls had been sold worldwide for sums as high as $5-10m (£3.3-6.6m).

According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the document is written in a style of ancient Hebrew primarily associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls.

These are scriptures and apocalyptic treatises thought to have been collected by an ascetic Jewish community which lived in the desert near the Dead Sea, and preserved by the dry climate.

But it remains unclear exactly where this document was obtained, said police and archaeologists.

Unusually, the first line of the document indicates a precise date, the IAA said - "Year 4 [AD] to the destruction of Israel", which could indicate either AD74, when Jerusalem's Second Temple was destroyed, or AD139, the date of a Jewish revolt violently put down by Rome.

The document appears to concern the transfer of property belonging to a widow called Miriam.

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This is a very inconvenient document for the Palestinians because they claim that the Jews have no historical claim to Israel, but right there in the document is the reference to that prior claim and the destruction of Israel by Rome.