FACES AND VOICES BLOG: “New” Judean desert papyrus sold by an anonymous antiquities dealer? Dr. Roberta Mazza is a papyrologist at the University of Manchester and the Rylands Library and she provides some expert commentary and links in this blog post, including the identification of the papyrus photo in the Jewish Press article which announced the discovery last week. Over the weekend Corrado Martone also e-mailed me with the identification: "The image published at the top of the article is the so-called Document Dated to Four Years After the Second Jewish Revolt published by the Eshels in 2009." I noted the story of the recovery of that papyus at the time here and here.
As for the new papyrus, which is reported to be in Hebrew and possibly to mention the name "Jerusalem," and which has been carbon-dated by the IAA to the eighth century BCE, we are all awaiting further information that should be released later this week. Watch this space.
Background here.
