Wadi Murabba'at, also known as Nahal Darga (Hebrew: נחל דרגה), is a ravine in the West Bank, cut by a seasonal stream which runs from the Judean Desert east of Bethlehem past the Herodium down to the Dead Sea 18 km south of Khirbet Qumran. It was here that Jewish fighters hid out in caves during the Bar Kochba revolt, leaving behind documents that include some letters signed by Simon Bar Kochba.Ben-Yosef (1979), pp. 27–28Dare to delve into Nahal Darga
Discovery and analysis of the caves When the Ta'amireh Bedouin tribe that discovered the first cave at Qumran learned how valuable the texts they found were, they began to search for other sites that might contain more scrolls. This led in the autumn of 1951 to the discovery of caves high up in the near vertical rock face of Wadi Murabba'at. With the confirmation that the new texts had come from Murabba'at, Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux commenced official excavations there in January 1952.Allegro, The Dead Sea Scrolls, pp. 35–36. Four caves were examined.
The remains discovered there reflected habitation, usually temporary, during the Chalcolithic period, the Bronze Age (including a Hyksos scarab), the Iron Age, and the Roman period. The latter is represented by a large amount of pottery and numerous weapons, including the blade of a pilum (a Roman javelin). Numerous spindle whorls were found, suggesting the presence of women working with yarn, and a coin hoard which included 149 Nabataean drachmas, 51 imperial dinars and 33 tetradrachmas of Trajan. Most of the coins were minted in Antioch. The spindle whorls and the coins suggest a lengthy encampment by bar Kochba forces in the area, while the Roman objects point to the settlement being overrun by Roman forces.Stern 2000, p. 582.
The Murabba'at area was surveyed by Pessah Bar-Adon in 1968, leading to the discovery of a fifth cave. In 1993 Hanan Eshel and Z. Greenhut discovered a cemetery which resembles that at Qumran.Stern 2000, pp. 581–582.
Textual materials From the Roman period there is an inventory of about 120 documents which cover the decades leading up to the Bar Kochba revolt. Many of these are legal documents including deeds of land sale, marriage contracts, a debt acknowledgement and a writ of divorce. Fragments of biblical texts including Genesis, Deuteronomy and Isaiah were found, as well as the remains of a Hebrew Minor Prophets scroll.Stern 2000, pp. 583–585.
List of manuscripts from Cave 1 Fragment or Scroll Identifier Fragment or Scroll NameAlternative Identifier English Bible Association LanguageDate/Script Description ReferenceWadi Murabba'at Cave 1Mur1Pentateuch?Mur1 Genesis 32:4–5, 30, 33–33:1; 34:5–7, 30–35:1, 4–7 Exodus 6:5–11HebrewRomanParts of Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers.MUR1 at the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital LibraryMurDeutDeuteronomyMur2Deuteronomy 10:1–3Hebrew20–84 CE RomanMUR2 at the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital LibraryMurIsaIsaiahMur3HebrewRomanMUR3 at the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital LibraryMurPhylPhylacteriesMur4Contains Exodus 13:1–16 Deuteronomy 11:13–21; 6:4–9HebrewRomanMUR4 at the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital LibraryMurMezMezuzahMur5Contains Exodus 13:1–16 Deuteronomy 11:13–21; 6:4–9HebrewRomanMUR5 at the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital LibraryMur6Unidentified literary textMur6MUR6 at the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital LibraryMurXIIMinor ProphetsMur88HebrewRoman (Square script)MUR88 at the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library
Letter from Simon Bar Kochba The following letter, translated by John Allegro, is addressed to Joshua ben Galgola, who was the military commander of the Herodium fortress, which lay between Wadi Murabba'at and Jerusalem. The letter provides Bar Kochba's real name.
Simon ben Kosebah to Joshua ben Galgola and the men of thy company; greetings. I call heaven to bear witness against me: if any one of the Galileans whom you have protected (or, delivered) cause trou[ble], I shall put fetters on your feet as I did to Ben Aphlul – Simon ben Kosebah (...)Translation by John Allegro, The Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 173.
References
Bibliography Allegro, John M., The Dead Sea Scrolls (Harmondsworth: Pelican, 1956) Benoit, P., Milik, J.T., and de Vaux, R., Les Grottes de Murabbaat (Oxford: Clarendon, 1961)(for text and photographs)
Stern, Ephraim (Archaeology), Eshel, Hanan (Written material), "Murabba'at, Wadi", in Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Schiffman, Lawrence H., VanderKam, James C. (eds.), Vol. 1 (Oxford, 2000), pp. 581–586.