The 2012 season is now complete - check here for an update on progress

During the 2012 season we will survey the Sealed Cave. This cave has never been opened, and we intend to open it and investigate the interior for the first time, and we will excavate the Mikveh Cave again.

The purpose and mission of our project is to discover the Archive of the Jewish Second Temple. 

Our hypothesis is based on the Jewish laws of Ritual Purity:

• Nothing was ever thrown away from the Temple as everything was considered sacred, and could not be contaminated by contact with rubbish/garbage/items dedicated to other gods
  
• The people of the Book have been proven to keep written records for centuries
  
• Artefacts and writings from the Temple had to be stored in ritually pure secure conditions

Why do we believe these caves might be the hiding place of the Archive?:

• Cave 27 has a Mikveh (ritual cleansing pool) at the entrance (proved in the Second Season). Priests would had been able to cleanse themselves before handling objects in the cave
• The caves are accessible from the plateau above - a few days walk from Jerusalem, and are yet still secret and hidden
• The sealed cave has never been viewed before
• The caves are located in one of the driest places on earth where vellum and parchment would not rot, as they would in the dampness of Jerusalem.
• A cave could be considered to be ritually pure as it is Mother Earth and not man-made
  
• Scrolls from near-by caves have survived the centuries (Dead Sea Scrolls)

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