Eine KI hat die Schriftrollen vom Toten Meer entschlüsselt… und es ist schlimmer, als wir dachten

In this video, we take a closer look at one of the most exciting archaeological discoveries of recent years: new fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, found in the so-called Cave of Horrors in the Judean Desert. More than 70 years after the initial finds, these tiny pieces of parchment show that the story of the famous scrolls is far from over. The focus is on a 2021 expedition in which archaeologists descended approximately 80 meters into a difficult-to-access cave. There, they discovered not only ancient text fragments but also traces of human life from various eras, including the mummified remains of a child and a basket almost 9,000 years old. These finds make the cave a unique archive of human history. Of particular significance are the newly discovered fragments of writing attributed to the Scroll of the Twelve Prophets. They contain passages from the books of Nahum and Zechariah and are written in ancient Greek, partly with Hebrew markings. This provides insight into the diversity of religious texts during the Second Temple period and reveals how sacred scriptures were read, copied, and transmitted in different communities. Another focus is on the use of modern technology. Multispectral imaging, optical character recognition (OCR), and artificial intelligence have made it possible to visualize faded letters, damaged lines, and subtle differences in handwriting, ink, and material. This has revealed that the scrolls are not only religious texts but also preserve traces of the people who copied and hid them under difficult conditions. The analysis also challenges long-held assumptions. For a long time, many scrolls were primarily associated with a single community in Qumran. However, new comparisons suggest that the texts may have originated from different Jewish groups, regions, and writing traditions. Some fragments exhibit differing formulations, missing books, and variants that do not fully correspond with later biblical texts. Thus, the Dead Sea Scrolls offer a fascinating glimpse into the origins of sacred texts. They show that religious tradition was not static, but was copied, preserved, changed, and adapted to times of crisis over the centuries. The findings do not destroy faith, but rather reveal how complex, human, and vibrant the history of biblical texts truly is.