Dead Sea Scrolls Are Older Than We Knew

Some of the Dead Sea scrolls are up to a century older than previously believed, with several as old as original books from the Bible, according to researchers helped by artificial intelligence. The ancient scrolls, discovered in caves on the north shore of the Dead Sea in the West Bank over a decade beginning in the 1940s, were later treated with castor oil to help experts read the texts. But that substance may have skewed radiocarbon dating results in the 1990s, researchers say. They add many of the scrolls were only ever dated using handwriting analysis, which is subject to human error. "We can put them in time much better now," University of Groningen paleographer Mladen Popovic tells the Guardian.

Researchers removed castor oil from 30 samples believed to span 500 years beginning in the 3rd century BCE before attempting new radiocarbon dating. All but three of the samples were successfully dated, with many turning up dates older than prior estimates. One particular sample containing verses from the book of Daniel "was previously dated to the late 2nd century BCE, a generation after the author of the book of Daniel," says Popovic, lead author of the study published Wednesday in PLOS One. "Now, with our study we move back in time contemporary to that author." The study also reveals a copy of the book of Ecclesiastes dates to the time of the original author.

The team didn't only rely on radiocarbon dating, which destroys samples. They built a machine learning model, which was trained to study the radiocarbon-dated manuscripts in the hope that it could learn to date the scrolls by itself, per New Scientist. In analyzing 135 manuscripts, it produced ages that matched with radiocarbon dates in 85% of cases and often gave a smaller range of probable dates than offered by radiocarbon dating, the Guardian reports. Given that there are more than 1,000 Dead Sea scrolls, "our study is a first but significant step, opening a door unto history with new possibilities for research," says Popovic. (More Dead Sea scrolls stories.)