NaFal David
Apart from a number of graves dated to the Hasmonean and Herodian pe-
riods in caves in and around NaFal David (Wadi Sudeir), one cave was
used as a place of refuge during the Chalcolithic and Iron Age and espe-
cially the Bar Kokhba period. During their treasure hunt through caves in
the{Ein Gedi area in 1952 and 1953, the Bedouin took the remains of at least
three manuscripts from the Cave of the Pool (named after a large pool at
the entrance similar to the ones in Cave 1 in Wadi Murabba{at and Cave 40
in NaFal Harduf ): fragments of a Genesis scroll on leather and remains of
two fiscal documents on papyrus, one in Greek and the other in Aramaic
dated to 134c.e.In 1961/62 Yohanan Aharoni and Nahman Avigad found
pottery, glass vessels, combs, food remains, and a bow and arrowheads in
the same cave.NaFalμever
When NaFalμever (Wadi Habra) was surveyed by Yohanan Aharoni in
1953, ten caves were discovered, and three of them were examined in 1953
and 1955. In 1960 and 1961 intensive excavations were conducted by Yigael
Yadin. It turned out that these caves were primarily used as shelter by refu-
gees during the Bar Kokhba period. Two Roman camps, one on each side
of the wadi, show that the Romans besieged the caves. Unfortunately, the
manuscript caves had been searched by Bedouin before Aharoni and Yadin
arrived. Three of the caves in NaFalμever proved especially important.
In a large cave with two openings, located under the northern bank of
the wadi (5/6μev, called the Cave of Letters), Yadin discovered a burial
chamber in 1960 that contained skeletons of nineteen individuals, coins,
pottery, a fragment of a Hebrew Psalms scroll (5/6μev 1b), a couple of
bronze objects, and a leather flask with fifteen letters written by Shimon
Bar Kosiba and his comrades. A year later, Yadin found more pottery, glass
vessels, metal objects, fragments of a scroll of the book of Numbers (5/
6 μev 1a), and again a large number of papyrus documents. In all, the pa-
pyri from 5/6μev (now named P.Yadin) represent four separate archives.
The first of these archives, the Bar Kokhba Archive discovered in 1960,
is especially famous (P.Yadin 49–63). Most of these letters were addressed
to Yehonatan ben-Be}ayan and Masabala, two of Kosiba’s commanders
from{Ein Gedi who took refuge in the cave (P.Yadin 49–56, 58–60). Only356jürgen k. zangenbergEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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