Dead Sea Scroll deciphered

Jerusalem : Israeli scholars have pieced together and deciphered one of two previously unread manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls more than half a century since their discovery, an Israeli university has said.

The more than 60 tiny fragments of parchment bearing encrypted Hebrew writing had previously been thought to come from a variety of different scrolls, a Haifa University spokesman told AFP yesterday.

But Eshbal Ratson and Jonathan Ben-Dov of the university’s Bible studies department found the pieces all fit together after they started examining them just under a year ago, Ilan Yavelberg said.

“They put it all together and said it was actually one scroll,” he said.

A Haifa University statement said that Ratson and Ben-Dov were now working on deciphering the last remaining scroll.