Centuries may now separate us from the Dead Sea Scrolls even more than we once believed.
Thanks to a fresh AI-driven approach, researchers are suggesting that these iconic manuscripts could predate previous estimates by a significant margin. Instead of relying on the style of hand lettering to date the ancient documents, the team used cutting edge carbon analysis on thirty separate scroll fragments.
They paired this with crisp, high-quality scans and enlisted a neural network, affectionately named “Enoch,” to trace subtle patterns across 135 scrolls. With this combination of old-world parchment and modern tech, the results go beyond traditional guesswork, grounding their findings firmly in objective evidence.
Old Words, New Revelations
Their study, recently published in a respected scientific journal, places some scrolls as early as the third century B.C. Previously, most scholars stuck to a timeframe between the third century B.C. and the first century A.D.
The Dead Sea Scrolls have fascinated the world since 1947, when Bedouin shepherds stumbled on them in caves that now rest in the West Bank. Out of nearly one thousand scroll remnants, just over two hundred belong to what we now recognize as biblical documents, providing our oldest surviving Hebrew Bible texts.
Mladen Popovic, the lead researcher, also serves as a dean at the University of Groningen, and he sees these manuscripts as keys to understanding both early Christianity and Judaism. “These scrolls are not only the earliest copy of certain biblical books,” said Joe Uziel, who leads the Dead Sea Scrolls studies in Israel, “They’re among the very oldest versions ever composed.”
To ensure accuracy, the team first washed off chemical traces left from decades of earlier investigations. This meticulous preparation paved the way for cleaner carbon dating and more reliable AI readings.
Their findings suggest a few scrolls—including such books as Ecclesiastes—may be one or even two centuries older than scholars previously assumed. The implications go further.
AI hints that ancient literacy might have been much more common in the region than scholars had believed. Astonishingly, the researchers have examined just a fraction of the entire collection, about ten percent, so there are likely many more secrets waiting inside the brittle parchment.
There is still much to uncover, and every new insight opens another window into a world that existed long before our own.
