University of Bologna professor Mauro Perani discovered the oldest Torah Scroll dating back to the 12th century in the university's archives. The oldest Torah scroll is made of lambskin and is 120 feet long.
The Torah is the sacred book of Judaism. According to National Geographic carbon dating suggests the Torah scroll was penned between 1155 and 1225 making it at least 800 years old, 850 at the oldest. It is the oldest Torah scroll on record.
Professor Perani had the oldest Torah scroll carbon dated at two different university laboratories. The University of Salento in Italy and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, both confirmed the scroll was set sometime between the last half of the 12th century and the first half of the 13th century.
ABC News says the Torah scroll has been stored in the archives of the University's library since the 18th century. The University of Bologna is the oldest university in the Western world.
The Washington Post says when Perani was first examining the Torah scroll he noticed the text was written in the script of the oriental Babylonian tradition. This was the professor's first clue the Torah scroll was considerably old. Perani spoke with National Geographic in an interview after he confirmed the scroll's time of origin. Perani said it was not just the script that led him to believe he was holding one of the oldest Torah scrolls.
"At the end of the 12th century Maimonides [a famous rabbinic authority] set down the rules for how to copy Torah scrolls, and those fixed rules have been followed ever since."
Perani said that the copyist for this particular scroll did not know those rules. If he had certain graphical elements used in the oldest Torah scroll would have been forbidden.
Finding an old, let alone the world's oldest Torah scroll is a rare thing. The Post says that once Torah scrolls became worn out or damaged they would be buried.
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