© (photo credit: SHAI HALEVI / ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY)Ishmael Papyrus, a rare document from the First Temple period.
A letter written in ancient Hebrew dating back to the First Temple period, around the sixth or seventh century BCE, was returned to Israel on Wednesday. It was probably found in the Judean Desert caves.
Archaeologists estimated that it dates back to the sixth century BCE which joins two other documents in this time period in the Israel Antiquities Authority Dead Sea Scrolls collection. The script on the extremely rare ripped document starts with "To Ishmael send...", hinting that it is a fragment of a letter.
According to a Wednesday press release, the letter was returned thanks to a joint operation by the Antiquities Theft Prevention Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Culture and Sport Ministry and the Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry.
Dr. Ada Yardeni, an Ancient Hebrew Script scholar, passed away back in June 2018 and Prof. Shmuel Ahituv was asked to take over and complete the publication of a document that she was working on before she passed.
According to the announcement, he was surprised to find a photograph of a rare and, until then unknown, document from the First Temple period with Yardeni's decipherment. This all led to the joint Intelligence operation finding the rest of the original documents.
They found a person who lives in Montana, USA, who owned the parchment.
He explained that it was given to his mother, who had hung it on her wall. She got it on a visit to Jerusalem in 1965 from Joseph Sa'ad, a well-known antiquities dealer from Bethlehem. Sa'ad was known to have sold thousands of Dead Sea scroll fragments over the years.
The man was convinced to give the fragment over to Israel after he was invited to visit the Israel Antiquities Authority Judean Desert Scroll Department's Conservation Laboratory in Jerusalem.
"The name Ishmael mentioned in the document, was a common name in the Biblical period, meaning 'God will hear,'" Ahituv said.
"It first appears in the Bible as the name of the son of Abraham and Hagar, and it is subsequently the personal name of several individuals in the Bible, including Yishmael ben Netanyahu, who murdered the governor Gedaliah ben Ahikam.
"It also appears as the name of officials on paleographic finds such as bullae (clay stamp seals) used for sealing royal documents in the administration of the Kingdom of Judea, for example, the bulla reading, 'To Yishmael, song of the king,'" he added.
Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority Judean Desert Scrolls Unit, Dr. Joe Uziel said: "Towards the end of the First Temple period, writing was widespread. This is evident from many finds, including groups of ostraca (documents written on pottery shards) and stamp seals with writing, that have been discovered in many ancient urban settlements.
"Each new document sheds further light on the literacy and the administration of the First Temple period," he added.
The story about the document will be presented at the First Judean Desert Conference taking place at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem next week. The conference is open to the public, free of charge.