Israel put on display in Jerusalem on Wednesday Roman-era weapons discovered this summer in a cave in the Judean desert, an “unprecedented” discovery, an Israeli official said, according to AFP.

Roman era swords found in IsraelPhoto: Nir Alon / Zuma Press / Profimedia

“This is a unique and important find, unprecedented in Israel,” said Eitan Klein, deputy director of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), as he presented four swords and a pilum, a type of short spear, that date back to the 1900s. old and in “excellent condition”.

The objects were found in June as part of a project to study the Judean Desert in one of hundreds of caves excavated in recent years in the area near the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, near the Dead Sea, the IAA explained.

The exact location was not disclosed due to concerns about theft, authorities added on the sidelines of the presentation.

Now the Judean desert is located on the territory of Israel and the occupied West Bank. An IAA spokeswoman said often

the cover is made in Israel.

“We believe (these weapons) were used during the Bar Kokhba revolt,” Klein said, referring to the last of the Jewish-Roman wars in the second century AD.

According to him, the weapons would have been confiscated by the Jews of Judea from the Roman soldiers and would constitute “spoils of war”.

“We’re just beginning to understand what it could be,” said Guy Stiebel, a professor at Tel Aviv University and an expert on the Roman Empire.

“It’s not just about the Jews, it’s about the Romans, it’s about the whole Roman Empire, and history is a complicated thing and we have to be patient and learn (these weapons) little by little,” he added.