New study revolutionizes Dead Sea Scrolls dating, might rewrite Israel’s history

[Hol]

The Dead Sea Scrolls may have been written decades — or even centuries — earlier than scholars previously thought, according to a revolutionary study that merges traditional scholarship with artificial intelligence.

The results potentially reshape scholars’ understandings of ancient Israel’s history, a new study published Wednesday [July 2023] on PLOS ONE has shown.

Whereas until now scholars have largely dated the texts based on their paleography — the shape of their lettering — the interdisciplinary research team started its study by carbon dating pieces of parchment from 30 of the scrolls held by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

New study revolutionizes Dead Sea Scrolls dating, might rewrite Israel’s history

Trailblazing interdisciplinary system, combining AI and radiocarbon dating, indicates the precious artifacts may have been written decades - or even centuries - earlier than previously believed

www.timesofisrael.com

 

[Hol]

Can AI Date the Dead Sea Scrolls?​

…
Yonatan Adler, an expert on the archaeology and history of early Judaism at Ariel University, was even more enthusiastic about Enoch’s potential. “This is a way to move forward,” said Adler. “Too often, scholars take these texts that have been around for years and simply regurgitate the same talking points in different ways. Here, there is an attempt to actually procure new data.”

However, as Rollston points out, some of Enoch’s proposed dates are demonstrably too high based on the available historical and textual evidence. For example, Rollston said, “Enoch’s calibrated date range for 4Q114 is: 230–160 BCE. This manuscript contains portions of Daniel 8–11. Chapters 7–12 of Daniel reference the desecration of the Jerusalem Temple by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (r. 175–164 BCE), something which occurred in 167 BCE. Therefore, it has been recognized for centuries that this block of Daniel cannot be dated prior to 167. This has been known all the way back to the Neo-Platonic Philosopher Porphyry, who lived in the third century CE. Thus, in this particular case, which is the one case where we can really fact-check Enoch, it is crystal clear that Enoch’s dates are much too high.”

But this argument against Enoch’s AI model is not shared by all. “If the reason why scholars critique the results is that it doesn’t necessarily fit in with what they have always thought about dating, then that is not a good critique,” said Adler, who is quick to point out that even if the results are not necessarily correct, they still need to be evaluated seriously.

Can AI Date the Dead Sea Scrolls?

A team has proposed a new method for dating the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, not all scholars are convinced.

www.biblicalarchaeology.org

raying that Israelis can see that Daniel is prophetic

 

[Tall Timbers]

Can AI Date the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Personally, I'm not that trusting of info provided by AI.

 

[Hol]

Personally, I'm not that trusting of info provided by AI.

That’s good to bear in mind.

In this case the AI was specifically trained in reading two more complete scrolls. That would eliminate generic documents found on the web, like scholars opinions.