Some 250, 000 pounds sterling ($700, 000) is urgently needed to enable the Jordan Government to purchase five Dead Sea scrolls from Beduin tribesmen according to the London Sunday Times. Unless the money if found soon, archaeologists fear they may be sold to private collectors or torn up to be sold as fragments to tourists.
Archaeologists are anxious that the Jordan Government should purchase the scrolls but the Department of Antiquities in Jordan is already on the verge of bankruptcy over the recent decision to retail all the scrolls still in the country and compensate their original buyers.
John Allegro, lecturer in the Semitic languages at Manchester University, who led a scroll-seeking expedition this spring, said here today that "the Beduins are getting restless and want to sell; they know the price of these scrolls by now."
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