IT'S WORTH ASKING THE QUESTION: What other secrets are hidden in the Qumran caves? Besides the Dead Sea Scrolls, the caves may contain items from the First Temple (GARY SCHIFF, Jewish News Syndicate).
If an article headline speculates on what might be found in the future at a site, it's a good bet that it's not reporting any actual new finds.
Nevertheless, we all like to speculate. Here are some comments on the speculation in this article.
Regarding items from the Temple, David Yehuda, an author involved in historical research on the subject, has been involved for decades with the work at Qumran. He cited several ancient documents that cross-reference each other, noting that all seem to point to Qumran as an area that may contain items of great significance, possibly from the Temple.I have not encountered David Yehuda before.As an example, the Copper Scroll, which sits in a museum in Amman, Jordan, lists many locations—a number of which seem to point to the Qumran area—where certain items from the First Temple were supposedly hidden before the exile.
As for the Copper Scroll, it is possible that it lists hiding places treasures from the Herodian Temple after its destruction in 70 CE. No one thinks it lists treasures from the First Temple hidden before the exile. The Copper Scroll was produced many centuries after the destruction of the First Temple. For many other PaleoJudaica posts on th Copper Scroll, start here and follow the links.
Yehuda also notes that the Kabbalistic book Emek HaMelech, written by R. Naftali Ben Yaakov Elchanan in 1648, lists hidden items from the First Temple. Yehuda points out that, according to the text, the location where these items were hidden was inscribed on a copper plate.The relevant part of Emek HaMelech is the same text as the Treatise of the Vessels. I published the first complete English translation of it in 2013. Much as I love this text, it is late – somewhere between post-Talmudic and early modern. It doesn't tell us anything about the actual fate of any of the treasures of either Temple. For many PaleoJudica posts on the Treatise of the Vessels, start here and follow the links.The Copper Scroll was evidently flat when it was first made, but then coated with clay and rolled like a scroll. The clay was presumably added to seal the surface to prevent oxidation. The care that its authors took to preserve it for the future is remarkable in and of itself. Further, Yehuda says, according to Revue Biblique there were two marble tablets found in the basement of a museum in Lebanon that contain the same text as that written in Emek HaMelech.
As for the larger interest of the article, who knows what could still be found in the Qumran caves? People are still looking (cf. here). Those particular caves have been explored very throroughly. I would be surprised by any major discoveries. The could still be odd scraps left.
The Judean Desert caves in general have also been searched pretty thoroughly. But I would not entirely exclude the possibility of important new finds in them. From as early as the First Temple? I doubt it, but who knows? The earliest discovery of artifacts in a Dead Sea cave was from the Chalcolithic period (4th millennium BCE; the Nahal Mishmar hoard).
I have occasionally pointed out that even some very early sites have preserved surprising amounts of organic material. That seems to point to conditions that could preserve scroll fragments. For the Timna Valley excavation (10th-century BCE) see here and links and here and links. For the Megiddo excavation, see here and links. Megiddo Tomb 50 dates to c. 1600 BCE. Textiles dating to c. 1100 BCE were also preserved in a jar at Megiddo.
Do I think it is likely there are scrolls from 1100 BCE buried in jars somewhere at Megiddo? No. But there is evidence that it is possible, so we may hope.
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