Cave of Letters - Discovery

Discovery

It was first discovered by Bedouin of the Ta`amireh tribe and then it was explored in 1953 and 1955 by the then inspector of the Israel Department of Antiquities, Y. Aharoni. After the sale of some letters written by Bar-Kokhba, found in the caves of a canyon called Wadi Murraba`at, 18 km south of the Qumran caves and 3 km from the Dead Sea, an expedition was put together in 1953 to explore these caves. However the expedition instead went to Nahal Hever where there were reports of Bedouin activity. Upon arriving the team noticed that, directly above the cave now known as the Cave of Letters, was the remnants of a Roman siege camp. Another camp on the southern side of the ravine was also over a cave. In the Cave of Letters were Chalcolithic remains from the 4th millennium as well as artifacts from the period of Roman occupation. Further exploration of the cave was abandoned because of some boulders obstructing access to other parts of the cave, as well as the fact that the cave had already been explored by the Bedouins. It was not until 1960, when some more documents from the Bar-Kokhba Revolt were sold to scholars in Jordan, that the Israeli government approved an “all-out archeological offensive” . With the assistance of the Israeli Defense Forces, 4 groups of scientists and qualified experts began their exploration of the desert on March 23, 1960 with a two week deadline. Yigael Yadin led a team to search the northern side of the ravine at Nahal Hever.