In a climate-controlled laboratory in the Netherlands, a machine-learning algorithm named Enoch is quietly redefining the intellectual landscape of ancient Judea.
Developed by researchers at the University of Groningen, this AI model, trained on the microscopic curves and strokes of ancient Hebrew script, has begun to challenge decades of scholarly consensus about the age and origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Discovered in 1947 in the caves of Qumran near the Dead Sea, the scrolls have long been hailed as one of the most significant archaeological finds of the 20th century. Comprising nearly a thousand manuscripts, including the earliest known copies of several Hebrew Bible texts, the scrolls offer a rare glimpse into the religious and cultural life of Second Temple Judaism. But for all their importance, their precise dating has remained elusive until now.