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Cambridge University Library

Twice buried, twice uncovered. The 10th-century C.E. manuscript shown here provided a first glimpse of an ancient Jewish sect (compare with next photo). Discovered in 1897 in the storeroom of a Cairo synagogue by the Jewish scholar Solomon Schechter and then named the Zadokite Fragments (now known as the Damascus Document), this text furiously condemns the ritual practices of the sect’s opponents. From the language and ideas contained within it, Schechter concluded that his find was a medieval version of a much earlier text.