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New Dead Sea Scroll fragments were found as well as the world's oldest basket (10,000 years old) were found only days ago in a Judean desert cave. It is the first discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947 and the early 1950s.

Some 1,900 years ago, Jewish refugees fleeing the Romans made their way to the Judean Desert. Among the belongings they carried with them were scrolls featuring the biblical books of Zechariah and Nahum. Two millennia later, fragments of those texts have been found.

The cave system must have been considered a safe haven during the war between the Roman Empire and the Judean rebels  130 AD. Jews found shelter in the caves and brought what they thought they needed for their new life.

The findings, which include not only the biblical fragments, but also dozens of artefacts dating back as early as 10,000 years ago, have been amazing. There are more than 80 fragments of different sizes, some of them carrying text. The script dated them to the end of the first century BC, which means that by the time it was brought to the cave, the scroll was already a century old. The texts came from the Book of Zechariah, written in Greek, except for God’s name, which was marked in paleo-Hebrew. This was probably a way to show the importance of the name of God.

This  version of Zechariah, verses 16 and 17 of the eighth chapter of Zechariah read: “These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to one another, render true and perfect justice in your gates. And do not contrive evil against one another, and do not love perjury, because all those are things that I hate – declares the Lord.” In the fragment, the word “gates” is replaced by the word “streets.”