Thirty-eight skeletons found in a cave in the Judean wilderness above Jericho six years ago have proved to be members of a single family.
Archaeologists and anthropologists who carried out minute biochemical examinations of the bones found a common genetic defect in all of them, proving that the male and female adults and children were of the same family.
Parchment scraps found disclosed that Yehoya Bar-Levy and his family took refuge in the cave at the time of the Bar-Kochba revolt nearly 2,000 years ago.
They had apparently died of asphyxiation when the Romans built fires at the entrance to the cave.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
