New Dead Sea scrolls found in desert cave in Israel, and a Greek puzzle

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/new-dead-sea-scrolls-1.5951332

A friend is asking:

"Here is a puzzle for my Greek Scholar friends. 1900-year-old fragments from Zechariah and Nahum (Books of the Bible) were found today in the Judean Desert south of Jerusalem. Reading the attached fragment, can you tell me which passage this is? I tried but I couldn't figure it out."

I (Rosie) think I see the word Τύρος in the middle right at the bottom of the circular brown stain. That means Tyre, and could indicate it's from Zechariah chapter 9. But the surrounding text doesn't fit.

Anyone else want to take a stab at it?

The image comes from this link: https://metro.co.uk/2021/03/16/fragments-of-2000-year-old-biblical-scrolls-found-in-israel-14253136/

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Comments

Rosie Perera

I think I answered the puzzle.

It might not be a photo of one of the recently discovered fragments after all, but rather a photo from a previously discovered fragment. It appears to match this reconstruction of a fragment from Zech 8.23b-9:7, which was published (on p. 77) in The Greek Minor Prophets Scroll from Nahal Hever (8HevXIIgr) by Emanuel Tov in 1990. https://books.google.ca/books?id=lLanEaS5u1IC&pg=PA77

Olli-Pekka Ylisuutari

I think I answered the puzzle.

You did indeed. The fragment and your screenshot of the reconstruction seem to match. What an exciting discovery!

Rick Carmickle

Many websites promoting the story are just grabbing whatever scroll they can find. And the one your friend sent is an example of that. You did correctly match it up with the Emanuel Tov publication. The Israel Antiquities Authority has a picture showing the newly-discovered scroll as ~52 small fragments about the size of your fingernail. Only 4 are slightly larger. But they also found coins from Bar Kokhba era and a neolithic basket about 10,000 years old.

Ted Weis

What's frustrating to me is they announced a nice fragment from Zechariah and Nahum, but there's no good, detailed photo from the many articles showing the new discovery.