An Astonishing Discovery from the Dawn of Christianity
Concealed for millennia within subterranean caves in the remote region of northern Jordan, the Lead Codices are believed to be the earliest bound books ever discovered.
Fashioned in the form of the codex—made from sheets or tablets of impure lead and bound with leaden rings—these extraordinary artefacts were discovered stored within lead containers, sometimes called arks.
The Lead Codices quite probably constitute the earliest extant corpus of Essene-Nasorean Hebrew-Christian texts ever discovered, originating from a time before the term “Christian” had been coined.
The discovery of the Lead Codices marks a unique and unprecedented moment in the field of archaeology.
Local Bedouin unearthed them in a region historically associated with the early followers of Jesus, who are believed to have fled Jerusalem during the Judeo-Roman war of 66-70 AD.
The Gospel of John suggests that Jesus had a place of refuge east of the River Jordan, in what is now the northern part of modern-day Jordan. The fourth-century historian Eusebius corroborates this, stating that the first Christians settled in or near Pella, located near the cave site where these texts were discovered.
The codices are inscribed in Paleo-Hebrew, (along with some Aramaic (an ancient Syriac language) and sometimes in a few examples, ancient Greek) an ancient script that predates 500 BC but was still in use during the time of Jesus.
Regarded as the original script of God, Paleo-Hebrew carries immense theological and historical significance. Some characters within the codices appear in unique forms not documented elsewhere. This sacred script is also found in some of the Dead Sea Scrolls and is emblematic of the era of King Solomon.
The metallurgical composition of the codices has been rigorously examined in laboratories worldwide. Since 2012, Professor Roger Webb, Director of the Ion Beam Centre at the University of Surrey, has led a series of scientific investigations. He has collaborated with a number of other European universities.
Following fourteen years of multidisciplinary analysis, these efforts have culminated in a major peer-reviewed publication affirming that the lead is ancient and that replicating its specific levels of corrosion and lack of residual radioactivity is virtually impossible using modern techniques. This will be the first of a number of peer-review papers in the coming few years.
A complementary corrosion analysis by researcher Matthew Hood BEg, MSc, CEng, FRINA, MAPM, CDipAF, MIET, RCNC has independently confirmed these findings. His study reveals that the text on the codices is not engraved but cast into the lead, and the extensive corrosion on the surface is consistent with an ancient origin. The absence of rehammering and the lack of crystalline fracturing on the surface indicate that the lead is not repurposed from later periods.
Surface and internal corrosion profiles date the artefacts to between 1,800 and 2,000 years old. Although dating lead presents significant challenges, the absence of detectable radiation signatures in several codices very strongly supports their considerable antiquity. Ongoing research is now focused on developing a definitive method to determine the precise age of the metal.
More scientific data and general information will be available on this website in due course.