Hanan Eshel

Hanan Eshel (Hebrew: חנן אשל; born at Rehovot on July 25, 1958,[1] died April 8, 2010) was an Israeli archaeologist and historian, well known in the field of Dead Sea Scrolls studies, although he did research in the Hasmonean and Bar Kokhba periods as well.

While working on his PhD he started teaching in the department of Land of Israel Studies and Archeology at Bar-Ilan University.

[2] As an archaeologist Eshel worked in 1986 and 1993 at a number of caves in the Judaean Desert where refugees hid from the Romans during the Bar Kokhba revolt.

The following year Eshel found that the text had not been sold and so with money from Bar-Ilan University he purchased the material and turned it over to the Israel Antiquities Authority.

He believed the fragments, from the book of Leviticus, originated in one of the caves in Nahal Arugot used as refuges from the Romans in the second century.