AI analysis says Dead Sea Scrolls are older than thought

June 7 (UPI) -- The ancient Dead Sea Scrolls likely are much older than originally thought, a new artificial intelligence analysis suggests.

The scrolls could be centuries older than initially thought, according to a study that combined radiocarbon dating with AI to better analyze the remnants of ancient documents, The Times of Israel reported.

"The Dead Sea Scrolls ... completely changed the way we think about ancient Judaism and early Christianity," said Mladen Popovic, lead author of the study that was published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One .

"Out of 1,000 manuscripts, a bit more than 200 are what we call biblical Old Testament," Popovic told CNN . "They are the oldest copies we have of the Hebrew Bible."

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