Legal Papers in Cookie Jar

● The ancient people of Israel may not have kept their housekeeping money in the teapot or in a clay piggy bank, but they did keep important legal documents and manuscripts in what looked like a cookie jar. One of these jars has been received at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. It had been put together like a jigsaw puzzle from over 100 fragments found in the Dead Sea Scroll cave. . . . Mention of the custom of putting legal documents in jars occurs in the Bible, Jeremiah 32:14, where the prophet charges Baruch, “Take these deeds, this deed of purchase which is sealed and this deed which is open and put them in an earthen vessel that they may continue many days.” Description of the jar is reported to the American Schools of Oriental Research by Dr. Carl H. Kraeling.—Science News Letter, March 22, 1952.