{"id":170241,"date":"2025-06-05T07:49:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T07:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unipi.it\/news\/le-mani-che-scrissero-la-bibbia-svelata-la-vera-eta-dei-rotoli-del-mar-morto\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T15:30:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T14:30:03","slug":"le-mani-che-scrissero-la-bibbia-svelata-la-vera-eta-dei-rotoli-del-mar-morto","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.unipi.it\/en\/news\/le-mani-che-scrissero-la-bibbia-svelata-la-vera-eta-dei-rotoli-del-mar-morto\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Hands that Wrote the Bible\u201d: unveiling the true age of the Dead Sea Scrolls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Dead Sea Scrolls are older than previously thought, and in some cases their writing is <strong>contemporary with the time when the anonymous authors of the biblical texts lived<\/strong>. This is the finding of a new international study published in the journal <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosone\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pone.0323185\"><strong>PLOS One<\/strong><\/a>, in which the University of Pisa, along with the universities of Groningen and Southern Denmark, participated in the European project ERC <strong>\u201cThe Hands that Wrote the Bible\u201d<\/strong>. For the first time, the research has merged artificial intelligence with radiocarbon dating, enhancing the accuracy of manuscript chronology.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_168924\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-168924\" style=\"width: 531px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-168924 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.unipi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/rotoli_marmorto-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"531\" height=\"137\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-168924\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Dead Sea Scrolls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Tests conducted on 135 scrolls have revealed that <strong>numerous manuscripts are actually much older than previously believed<\/strong>. The manuscripts in Asmonean writing, traditionally dated between 150\u201350 BC, may in some cases date back to before the mid-2nd century BC (i.e. around 175\u2013150 BC or even the late 3rd century BC). The Herodian script has also been found to be older than expected, pointing to a coexistence of the two styles as early as the late 2nd century BC, rather than from the mid-1st century BC, as previously assumed.<\/p>\n<p>The study also led to the identification of two manuscript fragments\u20144QDaniel<sup>c<\/sup> and 4QQoheleta\u2014from the <strong>Books of Daniel and Ecclesiastes<\/strong>, dating to the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC, respectively. These fragments originate from the same era in which the anonymous authors of the biblical texts are believed to have lived.\u00a0<strong>For the first time, fragments of the Bible can be linked with high probability to the period in which their texts were originally composed<\/strong>, offering tangible evidence for scholars investigating the origins of the Bible and the transmission of its writings.<\/p>\n<p>A team from the University of Pisa\u2014Professors <strong>Ilaria Degano<\/strong> and <strong>Maria Perla Colombini<\/strong>, along with Dr <strong>Jacopo La Nasa<\/strong> of the <strong>Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry<\/strong>\u2014contributed to the study by developing <strong>innovative protocols to remove contaminants from the fragments<\/strong>. These included residual substances from past restoration efforts <strong>that could have compromised the accuracy of radiocarbon dating.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_168921\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-168921\" style=\"width: 592px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-168921 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.unipi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/frammenti_rotoli2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"592\" height=\"589\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-168921\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cOur role was to<strong> ensure that the materials sent for dating were as clean as possible<\/strong>\u00a0and free of residues that could distort the results,\u201d explains Professor Ilaria Degano. \u201cTo achieve this,\u00a0<strong>we developed and validated a specific protocol that removes contaminants<\/strong>\u00a0without damaging the sample and allows for analytical verification of its integrity.\u201d It was a challenge that demanded extreme precision, as <strong>we were working with unique and fragile artifacts<\/strong>. This highly innovative approach sets a new benchmark for the preparation of ancient manuscripts for radiometric dating and can be applied to similar materials in future research.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The physicochemical data obtained also played a crucial role in training <strong>Enoch, a new machine learning model<\/strong> designed to estimate the age of manuscripts based solely on images of the script. Developed at the University of Groningen, Enoch is powered by BiNet, a deep neural network that analyses ink traces and the morphology of handwritten characters. Validated against radiocarbon dating, the algorithm achieved an unprecedented level of accuracy, with a margin of error of approximately 30 years\u2014or less\u2014surpassing that of traditional radiometric techniques for the period in question.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A study published in the international journal Plos One has uncovered that the scrolls are older than previously assumed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":168979,"menu_order":3,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"tag-notizie-persone":[],"tags_news":[2757],"categorie":[],"class_list":["post-170241","news","type-news","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tags_news-dipartimento-di-chimica-e-chimica-industriale-en"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u201cThe Hands that Wrote the Bible\u201d: unveiling the true age of the Dead 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