A €2.5 million ERC grant will fund a five-year project that will combine chemical testing, paleography, scroll structure research and artificial intelligence. Researchers will examine around 250 parchment and papyrus samples and attempt to map more than 25 scroll fragments.
the mother Scrolls from the Judean Desert Written inQumranWere they brought from Jerusalem or created in several writing centers throughout ancient Judea? A new international study, which will last five years, will attempt to answer one of the central questions that has accompanied the study of the scrolls since their discovery more than seventy years ago.
European Research CouncilThe ERC has awarded a €2.5 million advanced grant to Prof. Malden Popowitz of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The project, called Tracing Scribes and Scrolls, will be held in collaboration with Israel Antiquities Authority and research laboratories in Europe and will combine chemical tests of parchment, papyrus and ink with manuscript analysis, study of the structure of the scrolls and tools artificial intelligence.
The Judean Desert Scrolls include the earliest known copies of large portions of the Bible, along with denominational writings, prayers, interpretive works, legal texts, and literary works fromתקופת הבית השניMany of them were discovered in the Qumran caves, but scrolls and fragments of writings were also found at other sites in the Judean Desert.
The unresolved question: Where were the scrolls written?
Since the discovery of the first scrolls in the 1940s, scholars have debated whether the Qumran library was largely created on site, or whether scrolls written in Jerusalem and other centers were brought to the caves.
One hypothesis is that at least some of the scrolls were written by a Jewish community living in Qumran and operating separately from the urban centers. Another hypothesis is that the caves served as a hiding place for books and documents brought from other areas of Judea, perhaps during times of war or danger.
Another possibility is that the findings reflect several groups, traditions, and writing centers, rather than a unified library created at a single site.
Until now, much of the research has focused on the content of the texts, the language, the writing style, and identifying the hands of the scribes. The new project seeks to expand the examination to the materials themselves: the type of parchment, the composition of the ink, the origin of the papyrus, the methods of preparation, and the physical structure of the scrolls.
The chemical fingerprint of the parchment and ink
As part of the research, approximately 250 samples of parchment and papyrus from the Judean Desert Scrolls Collection, which is preserved and cared for in the laboratories of the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem, will be examined.
Researchers will try to identify differences in the chemical composition of the writing materials. Such differences may indicate the origin of the raw materials, different processing methods, and the existence of separate production centers.
Parchment, for example, is made from animal hides that have been cleaned, stretched, dried, and processed. The methods and materials used to make it may vary from region to region and workshop to workshop. The ink may also contain different mixtures of soot, minerals, salts, and binding agents.
If repeating chemical patterns are found in several scrolls, it may be possible to group them by place of production or a shared technological tradition.
For the first time, papyrus samples from Egypt will be analyzed as part of such a study, and they will be compared to samples from Qumran and other sites in the Judean Desert. The comparison may help identify imported raw materials and examine connections between Judea and writing centers in other regions.
Artificial intelligence will search for patterns among thousands of data
The chemical information produced in the laboratories will be processed using artificial intelligence tools. The goal is not to allow the system to "read" the scrolls on its own, but to identify connections and patterns that are difficult to detect through manual examination.
Such a system would be able to compare the composition of the parchment, the characteristics of the ink, the shape of the letters, the structure of the sheets, the arrangement of the columns, the margins, and the connecting marks between the parts of the scroll.
The material data will also be accompanied by findings from the field ofPaleography — The study of ancient writing — as well as linguistic, literary, and codicological characteristics.
Codicology deals with the physical structure of manuscripts: how the sheets were joined, how the text was divided into columns, what spacing was used, what corrections were made, and how the scroll was edited.
Combining all layers of information may allow researchers to examine whether scrolls that appear literary different were nevertheless produced in the same place, or vice versa—whether scrolls that are similar in writing and content were written on materials originating from different centers.
From 250 samples to over 25 segments
The Israel Antiquities Authority's collection contains more than 25 scroll fragments. Most of them are very small, and some include single words or only partial writing marks.
It won't be possible to perform full chemical tests on each of them, so the researchers hope to build a model based on the sample of about 250 samples, and then use the learned features to classify and map additional sections.
The goal is to attempt to locate scribes, writing groups, and scrolls in time and space. Such a model may identify clusters of fragments written in the same workshop, in the same region, or by a group of scribes operating within a common framework.
The results may also help in reassembling separated fragments, identifying the belonging of parts to a particular scroll, and understanding the way in which texts were copied and distributed.
Not only who wrote, but also where
According to Prof. Popovitz, this is the largest study conducted to date using artificial intelligence to understand the cultural background of the Judean Desert Scrolls.
“These scrolls are extraordinary evidence of a rich intellectual world that operated in ancient Judah,” he said. He said that combining laboratory tests with manuscript research and artificial intelligence tools makes it possible to ask not only who wrote the texts, but also where they were written, in what knowledge networks they were distributed, and what their place was in the society of the time.
The new research continues a previous project by Popovich, The Hands That Wrote the Bible, which focused on identifying authors and manuscripts through paleographic analysis and artificial intelligence.
The new project expands the perspective from the writing hand to the environment within which it operated: the source of writing materials, the methods of production, the centers of study, and the paths along which texts and ideas moved.
New database for studying the scrolls
One of the project's results is expected to be the establishment of a comprehensive database on the chemical composition of the Judean Desert Scrolls.
Such a database may be used by researchers even after the project is completed, not only for the purpose of locating the origin of scrolls, but also for conservation studies, damage identification, and comparisons between Ancient manuscripts From different regions.
The Israel Antiquities Authority plays a central role in the research, as it is responsible for preserving, caring for, and documenting most of the scroll fragments.
The tests will have to be carried out with great care, minimizing damage to the ancient material. Some modern chemical methods allow materials to be analyzed using very small samples or using non-destructive tests.
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