Priti Maithil, 23, is living out the Indian dream. The daughter of a laid-off casual labourer at a local sugar mill in Sehore, a sleepy little town 35 km away from Bhopal, she has secured the 92nd rank in the Union Public Service Commission examinations this year and is all set to join the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS).
It wasn’t easy. Her father, Santosh Kumar, had lost his job in 2002 when the mill shut down. He then took to farming and ekes out a living growing wheat on seven acres he ws given by the mill management.
“We faced tough times, but my parents never let me feel deprived,” said Maithil, who likes reading, painting, debating and cooking. Relatives also chipped in — a paternal uncle supported her financially when she decided to join a coaching institute in Delhi.
A graduate in agriculture from Rafi Ahmed Kidwai College of Agriculture, Sehore, Maithil, who speaks fluent English — she studied in a local English medium school — does not subscribe to the view that the UPSC examinations are loaded in favour of those from English medium schools.
“More people from non-urban backgrounds are getting selected. That’s good, because they have a first-hand feel of the problems faced by the common man,” she said.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
It’s a way of life
In Kadachha village like in many others in Madhya Pradesh, social discrimination has become a way of life, with Dalits and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) accepting it as a tradition to be followed.
A visit to this village in Ujjain district (adjoining Indore) — that shot into the limelight following an HT report based on the findings of NGO Jan Sahas and Unicef on caste discrimination in serving of mid-day meals and care of pregnant and postpartum Dalit women — showed how deep-rooted the malaise is.
A schoolteacher belonging to the Dalit community said on condition of anonymity fearing further victimisation, “I have experienced it all my life. We can’t mount a horse at marriage processions. We can’t celebrate in upper caste localities with drums and the like. We have to get off a cycle if an elderly person from the upper caste is close by. The list is endless.”
“But what can an individual do when the practice is accepted even by members of the reserved class. If I make a hue and cry over the issue, the elders in my own community will gag me,” he said.
Ignorant of the stigma attached to the practice, Lekha (only name mentioned), a standard V student said, “We have always been sitting in separate rows for mid-day meals. Is it bad?” When informed that it was a violation of his rights, the schoolboy said, “My father never told me this.”
The sarpanch (headman) of the village, Balaram Jaat, went to the extent of defending the discrimination. “No one tells Dalits to refrain from eating at public functions with the upper caste people or remain outside the houses of Brahmins or Rajputs. They do it on their own. They feel it is a tradition that has to be kept alive.”
Among the 900-odd people living in the village, nearly 90 per cent belong to the Scheduled Caste and Other Backward Classes. Some Brahmins and Rajputs also live in the village.
The localities of the upper caste and the Dalits are clearly defined.
The headman claimed that the upper caste people have been living here for generations. “How can they (upper castes) be asked to leave their traditional homes and construct houses in other localities?” He implied that as long as the upper castes live in locality, the tradition of subservience should be followed.
A visit to this village in Ujjain district (adjoining Indore) — that shot into the limelight following an HT report based on the findings of NGO Jan Sahas and Unicef on caste discrimination in serving of mid-day meals and care of pregnant and postpartum Dalit women — showed how deep-rooted the malaise is.
A schoolteacher belonging to the Dalit community said on condition of anonymity fearing further victimisation, “I have experienced it all my life. We can’t mount a horse at marriage processions. We can’t celebrate in upper caste localities with drums and the like. We have to get off a cycle if an elderly person from the upper caste is close by. The list is endless.”
“But what can an individual do when the practice is accepted even by members of the reserved class. If I make a hue and cry over the issue, the elders in my own community will gag me,” he said.
Ignorant of the stigma attached to the practice, Lekha (only name mentioned), a standard V student said, “We have always been sitting in separate rows for mid-day meals. Is it bad?” When informed that it was a violation of his rights, the schoolboy said, “My father never told me this.”
The sarpanch (headman) of the village, Balaram Jaat, went to the extent of defending the discrimination. “No one tells Dalits to refrain from eating at public functions with the upper caste people or remain outside the houses of Brahmins or Rajputs. They do it on their own. They feel it is a tradition that has to be kept alive.”
Among the 900-odd people living in the village, nearly 90 per cent belong to the Scheduled Caste and Other Backward Classes. Some Brahmins and Rajputs also live in the village.
The localities of the upper caste and the Dalits are clearly defined.
The headman claimed that the upper caste people have been living here for generations. “How can they (upper castes) be asked to leave their traditional homes and construct houses in other localities?” He implied that as long as the upper castes live in locality, the tradition of subservience should be followed.
Fourth phase of polling today; Congress eyeing big gains
Vote 2009 enters the penultimate round, with polling in 85 Lok Sabha seats across eight states on Thursday, in what is seen as a crucial phase for the Congress that’s eyeing big gains in Rajasthan, West Bengal and Punjab.
On its part, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be looking to cut possible losses in Rajasthan, while the Left Front battles to retain its electoral stronghold in West Bengal.
Then there is Delhi, where the Congress won six out of seven seats in 2004 and is hoping for a repeat.
In this round, Congress is defending 27 seats that it had won in 2004, followed by rival BJP that's battling to retain 25 seats, most of them in Rajasthan that's voting in one go.On the eve of polling, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said she was confident that Congress would sweep Delhi. “A performing government, committed to development, is our message to the voters,” she said, referring to 1.1 crore voters in the capital city.
Across India, about 9.5 crore people are eligible to vote on Thursday, which will take the total number of seats polled to 457. The remaining 86 seats will go to the polls on May 13.
Congress stalwart Pranab Mukherjee (73), BJP President Rajnath Singh (57) along with regional satraps Lalu Prasad (60) of Rashriya Janata Dal, Mulayam Singh Yadav (69) of Samajwadi Party and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah (72) are among the 1,315 candidates in the fray.
In this round, Congress is defending 27 seats that it had won in 2004, followed by rival BJP that's battling to retain 25 seats, most of them in Rajasthan that's voting in one go.
The BJP, pollsters say, could see some unexpected gains in western Uttar Pradesh, where 17 seats are voting.
In this region, it is also a test for Mulayam Singh whose party had won 10 seats in an alliance with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). This time the RLD has switched to BJP.
Election managers from the Congress party have high hopes from this round, which could either add a good number of seats to its total tally or offset losses elsewhere.
In the outgoing Lok Sabha, Congress had only four seats from Rajasthan compared to BJP's 21. Congress' hopes to improve its tally rest on the defeat of BJP in assembly elections in the state, held in December.
There are also gains to be made in Punjab, where the ruling Akali Dal-BJP alliance is battling anti-incumbency.
In West Bengal — 17 out of the states' 42 seats vote on Thursday — the Left Front faces a tough fight from the Congress-Mamata Banerjee combine.
In Haryana, the Congress is on the defensive, trying to retain the nine seats out of 10 it had won last time. This time, it faces a formidable alliance of BJP and local INLD.
On its part, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be looking to cut possible losses in Rajasthan, while the Left Front battles to retain its electoral stronghold in West Bengal.
Then there is Delhi, where the Congress won six out of seven seats in 2004 and is hoping for a repeat.
In this round, Congress is defending 27 seats that it had won in 2004, followed by rival BJP that's battling to retain 25 seats, most of them in Rajasthan that's voting in one go.On the eve of polling, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said she was confident that Congress would sweep Delhi. “A performing government, committed to development, is our message to the voters,” she said, referring to 1.1 crore voters in the capital city.
Across India, about 9.5 crore people are eligible to vote on Thursday, which will take the total number of seats polled to 457. The remaining 86 seats will go to the polls on May 13.
Congress stalwart Pranab Mukherjee (73), BJP President Rajnath Singh (57) along with regional satraps Lalu Prasad (60) of Rashriya Janata Dal, Mulayam Singh Yadav (69) of Samajwadi Party and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah (72) are among the 1,315 candidates in the fray.
In this round, Congress is defending 27 seats that it had won in 2004, followed by rival BJP that's battling to retain 25 seats, most of them in Rajasthan that's voting in one go.
The BJP, pollsters say, could see some unexpected gains in western Uttar Pradesh, where 17 seats are voting.
In this region, it is also a test for Mulayam Singh whose party had won 10 seats in an alliance with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). This time the RLD has switched to BJP.
Election managers from the Congress party have high hopes from this round, which could either add a good number of seats to its total tally or offset losses elsewhere.
In the outgoing Lok Sabha, Congress had only four seats from Rajasthan compared to BJP's 21. Congress' hopes to improve its tally rest on the defeat of BJP in assembly elections in the state, held in December.
There are also gains to be made in Punjab, where the ruling Akali Dal-BJP alliance is battling anti-incumbency.
In West Bengal — 17 out of the states' 42 seats vote on Thursday — the Left Front faces a tough fight from the Congress-Mamata Banerjee combine.
In Haryana, the Congress is on the defensive, trying to retain the nine seats out of 10 it had won last time. This time, it faces a formidable alliance of BJP and local INLD.
Ministers keep innocent on DNA database
the genetic profiles of hundreds of thousands of innocent people are to be kept on the national DNA database for up to 12 years in a decision critics claim is designed to sidestep a European human rights ruling that the "blanket" retention of suspects' data is unlawful.
The proposed new rules for the national DNA databaseto be put forward tomorrow by the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, include plans to keep the DNA profiles of innocent people who are arrested but not convicted of minor offences for six years.
The proposal would also apply to children from age 10 who are arrested but never successfully prosecuted.
In cases of more serious violent and sexual crime, innocent people's genetic codes will be kept for 12 years.
It was widely expected that the DNA profiles, samples and fingerprints of 850,000 innocent people kept on the database would be destroyed in response to the ruling by the European court of human rights last December.
But the proposals fall short of those expectations and contrast sharply with the situation in Scotland, where only the DNA profiles of suspects arrested for serious violent and sexual offences are retained for a maximum of five years.
Human rights groups, and opposition politicians united tonightin expressing dismay that the Home Office had rejected that option and predicted a race to the courts to challenge the new policy.
"The government just doesn't get this," said the shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling. The Liberal Democrats' Chris Huhne added: "This is an undignified rearguard action designed to give as little as possible."
Liberty's Shami Chakrabarti said: "Wholly innocent people – including children – will have their most intimate details stockpiled for years on a database that will remain massively out of step with the rest of the world."
But Home Office ministers say their proposals do comply with the landmark S and Marper judgment in Strasbourg which declared unlawful their policy of keeping all unconvicted suspects' DNA profiles indefinitely because of its "blanket and indiscriminate" nature. The police are now to be asked to spend up to two years trawling the existing 850,000 DNA profiles – the numerical digital code recording the individual's DNA – of innocent people on the database to see if any of them have a criminal record for any other offences.
The Home Office say 350,000 are known to be linked to entries on the police national computer. For the remaining 500,000 it is not yet possible to say whether their arrest led to a conviction or not and their DNA profile will be removed only once this check has been made.
The package proposed by the home secretary to meet the ruling include:
• Retaining indefinitely all DNA profiles and fingerprints of those convicted of an imprisonable offence.
• Keeping for 12 years the DNA profiles of those arrested but not convicted of serious sexual and violent offences.
• Keeping for six years the DNA profiles of those arrested but not convicted of minor offences.
• Removing the profiles of children when they reach 18 only if they have been arrested for only one minor offence.
• Adding the profiles of 30,000 more criminals convicted abroad or serving community sentences for serious offences.
• Destroying the genetic DNA samples held by the police once they have been converted into a DNA profile.
The home secretary said the database proposals would ensure that "the right people are on it, as well as considering where people should come off".
The Home Office estimates that even this package will mean 4,500 fewer crimes each year being detected compared with the current policy of retaining indefinitely the profiles of all those arrested.
"It is crucial that we do everything we can to protect the public by preventing crime and bringing offenders to justice. The DNA database plays a vital role in helping us do that and will help ensure that a great many criminals are behind bars where they belong," said Smith.
But Grayling said: "Ministers are just trying to get away with as little as they can instead of taking action to remove innocent people from the database." Huhne added that the number of innocent people on the database had risen to 925,000 since
excerpts from the guardian.com
The proposed new rules for the national DNA databaseto be put forward tomorrow by the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, include plans to keep the DNA profiles of innocent people who are arrested but not convicted of minor offences for six years.
The proposal would also apply to children from age 10 who are arrested but never successfully prosecuted.
In cases of more serious violent and sexual crime, innocent people's genetic codes will be kept for 12 years.
It was widely expected that the DNA profiles, samples and fingerprints of 850,000 innocent people kept on the database would be destroyed in response to the ruling by the European court of human rights last December.
But the proposals fall short of those expectations and contrast sharply with the situation in Scotland, where only the DNA profiles of suspects arrested for serious violent and sexual offences are retained for a maximum of five years.
Human rights groups, and opposition politicians united tonightin expressing dismay that the Home Office had rejected that option and predicted a race to the courts to challenge the new policy.
"The government just doesn't get this," said the shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling. The Liberal Democrats' Chris Huhne added: "This is an undignified rearguard action designed to give as little as possible."
Liberty's Shami Chakrabarti said: "Wholly innocent people – including children – will have their most intimate details stockpiled for years on a database that will remain massively out of step with the rest of the world."
But Home Office ministers say their proposals do comply with the landmark S and Marper judgment in Strasbourg which declared unlawful their policy of keeping all unconvicted suspects' DNA profiles indefinitely because of its "blanket and indiscriminate" nature. The police are now to be asked to spend up to two years trawling the existing 850,000 DNA profiles – the numerical digital code recording the individual's DNA – of innocent people on the database to see if any of them have a criminal record for any other offences.
The Home Office say 350,000 are known to be linked to entries on the police national computer. For the remaining 500,000 it is not yet possible to say whether their arrest led to a conviction or not and their DNA profile will be removed only once this check has been made.
The package proposed by the home secretary to meet the ruling include:
• Retaining indefinitely all DNA profiles and fingerprints of those convicted of an imprisonable offence.
• Keeping for 12 years the DNA profiles of those arrested but not convicted of serious sexual and violent offences.
• Keeping for six years the DNA profiles of those arrested but not convicted of minor offences.
• Removing the profiles of children when they reach 18 only if they have been arrested for only one minor offence.
• Adding the profiles of 30,000 more criminals convicted abroad or serving community sentences for serious offences.
• Destroying the genetic DNA samples held by the police once they have been converted into a DNA profile.
The home secretary said the database proposals would ensure that "the right people are on it, as well as considering where people should come off".
The Home Office estimates that even this package will mean 4,500 fewer crimes each year being detected compared with the current policy of retaining indefinitely the profiles of all those arrested.
"It is crucial that we do everything we can to protect the public by preventing crime and bringing offenders to justice. The DNA database plays a vital role in helping us do that and will help ensure that a great many criminals are behind bars where they belong," said Smith.
But Grayling said: "Ministers are just trying to get away with as little as they can instead of taking action to remove innocent people from the database." Huhne added that the number of innocent people on the database had risen to 925,000 since
excerpts from the guardian.com
Art historians claim Van Gogh's ear 'cut off by Gauguin'
Vincent van Gogh's fame may owe as much to a legendary act of self-harm, as it does to his self-portraits. But, 119 years after his death, the tortured post-Impressionist's bloody ear is at the centre of a new controversy, after two historians suggested that the painter did not hack off his own lobe but was attacked by his friend, the French artist Paul Gauguin.
According to official versions, the disturbed Dutch painter cut off his ear with a razor after a row with Gauguin in 1888. Bleeding heavily, Van Gogh then walked to a brothel and presented the severed ear to an astonished prostitute called Rachel before going home to sleep in a blood-drenched bed.
But two German art historians, who have spent 10 years reviewing the police investigations, witness accounts and the artists' letters, argue that Gauguin, a fencing ace, most likely sliced off the ear with his sword during a fight, and the two artists agreed to hush up the truth.
In Van Gogh's Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence, published in Germany, Hamburg-based academics Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans argue that the official version of events, based largely on Gauguin's accounts, contain inconsistencies and that both artists hinted that the truth was more complex.
Van Gogh and Gauguin's troubled friendship was legendary. In 1888, Van Gogh persuaded him to come to Arles in the south of France to live with him in the Yellow House he had set up as a "studio of the south". They spent the autumn painting together before things soured. Just before Christmas, they fell out. Van Gogh, seized by an attack of a metabolic disease became aggressive and was apparently crushed when Gauguin said he was leaving for good.
Kaufmann told the Guardian: "Near the brothel, about 300 metres from the Yellow House, there was a final encounter between them: Vincent might have attacked him, Gauguin wanted to defend himself and to get rid of this 'madman'. He drew his weapon, made some movement in the direction of Vincent and by that cut off his left ear." Kaufmann said it was not clear if it was an accident or an aimed hit.
While curators at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam stand by the theory of self-mutilation, Kaufmann argues that Van Gogh dropped hints in letters to his brother, Theo, once commenting : "Luckily Gauguin ... is not yet armed with machine guns and other dangerous war weapons."
According to official versions, the disturbed Dutch painter cut off his ear with a razor after a row with Gauguin in 1888. Bleeding heavily, Van Gogh then walked to a brothel and presented the severed ear to an astonished prostitute called Rachel before going home to sleep in a blood-drenched bed.
But two German art historians, who have spent 10 years reviewing the police investigations, witness accounts and the artists' letters, argue that Gauguin, a fencing ace, most likely sliced off the ear with his sword during a fight, and the two artists agreed to hush up the truth.
In Van Gogh's Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence, published in Germany, Hamburg-based academics Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans argue that the official version of events, based largely on Gauguin's accounts, contain inconsistencies and that both artists hinted that the truth was more complex.
Van Gogh and Gauguin's troubled friendship was legendary. In 1888, Van Gogh persuaded him to come to Arles in the south of France to live with him in the Yellow House he had set up as a "studio of the south". They spent the autumn painting together before things soured. Just before Christmas, they fell out. Van Gogh, seized by an attack of a metabolic disease became aggressive and was apparently crushed when Gauguin said he was leaving for good.
Kaufmann told the Guardian: "Near the brothel, about 300 metres from the Yellow House, there was a final encounter between them: Vincent might have attacked him, Gauguin wanted to defend himself and to get rid of this 'madman'. He drew his weapon, made some movement in the direction of Vincent and by that cut off his left ear." Kaufmann said it was not clear if it was an accident or an aimed hit.
While curators at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam stand by the theory of self-mutilation, Kaufmann argues that Van Gogh dropped hints in letters to his brother, Theo, once commenting : "Luckily Gauguin ... is not yet armed with machine guns and other dangerous war weapons."
Hobbits 'are a separate species'
Scientists have found more evidence that the Indonesian "Hobbit" skeletons belong to a new species of human - and not modern pygmies.
The 3ft (one metre) tall, 30kg (65lbs) humans roamed the Indonesian island of Flores, perhaps up to 8,000 years ago.
Since the discovery, researchers have argued vehemently as to the identity of these diminutive people.
Two papers in the journal Nature now support the idea they were an entirely new species of human.
The team, which discovered the tiny remains in Liang Bua cave on Flores, contends that the population belongs to the species Homo floresiensis - separate from our own grouping Homo sapiens .
They argue that the "Hobbits" are descended from a prehistoric species of human - perhaps Homo erectus - which reached island South-East Asia more than a million years ago.
Over many years, their bodies most likely evolved to be smaller in size, through a natural selection process called island dwarfing, claim the discoverers, and many other scientists.
However, some researchers argued that this could not account for the Hobbit's chimp-sized brain of almost 400 cubic cm - a third the size of the modern human brain.
Disease theory
This was a puzzle, they said, because the individuals seem to have crafted complex stone tools.
They said the Hobbits were probably part of a group of modern humans with abnormally small brains.
One team led by William Jungers from Stony Brook University in the US analysed remains of the Hobbit foot.
They found that, in some ways, it is incredibly human. The big toe is aligned with the others and the joints make it possible to extend the toes as the body's full weight falls on the foot, attributes not found in great apes.
But in other respects, it is incredibly primitive. It is far longer than its modern human equivalent, and equipped with a very small big toe, long, curved lateral toes, and a weight-bearing structure that resembles that of a chimpanzee.
So unless the Flores Hobbits became more primitive over time - a rather unlikely scenario - they must have branched off the human line at an even earlier date.
In another study, Eleanor Weston and Adrian Lister of London's Natural History Museum looked at fossils of several species of ancient hippos. They then compared those found on the island of Madagascar with the mainland ancestors from which they evolved.
"It could be that H. floresiensis' skull is that of a Homo erectus that has become dwarfed from living on an island, rather than being an abnormal individual or separately-evolved species, as has been suggested," said Dr Weston, a palaeontologist at the museum.
"Looking at pygmy hippos in Madagascar, which possess exceptionally small brains for their size, suggests that the same could be true for H. floresiensis , and that (it could be) the result of being isolated on the island."
The 3ft (one metre) tall, 30kg (65lbs) humans roamed the Indonesian island of Flores, perhaps up to 8,000 years ago.
Since the discovery, researchers have argued vehemently as to the identity of these diminutive people.
Two papers in the journal Nature now support the idea they were an entirely new species of human.
The team, which discovered the tiny remains in Liang Bua cave on Flores, contends that the population belongs to the species Homo floresiensis - separate from our own grouping Homo sapiens .
They argue that the "Hobbits" are descended from a prehistoric species of human - perhaps Homo erectus - which reached island South-East Asia more than a million years ago.
Over many years, their bodies most likely evolved to be smaller in size, through a natural selection process called island dwarfing, claim the discoverers, and many other scientists.
However, some researchers argued that this could not account for the Hobbit's chimp-sized brain of almost 400 cubic cm - a third the size of the modern human brain.
Disease theory
This was a puzzle, they said, because the individuals seem to have crafted complex stone tools.
They said the Hobbits were probably part of a group of modern humans with abnormally small brains.
One team led by William Jungers from Stony Brook University in the US analysed remains of the Hobbit foot.
They found that, in some ways, it is incredibly human. The big toe is aligned with the others and the joints make it possible to extend the toes as the body's full weight falls on the foot, attributes not found in great apes.
But in other respects, it is incredibly primitive. It is far longer than its modern human equivalent, and equipped with a very small big toe, long, curved lateral toes, and a weight-bearing structure that resembles that of a chimpanzee.
So unless the Flores Hobbits became more primitive over time - a rather unlikely scenario - they must have branched off the human line at an even earlier date.
In another study, Eleanor Weston and Adrian Lister of London's Natural History Museum looked at fossils of several species of ancient hippos. They then compared those found on the island of Madagascar with the mainland ancestors from which they evolved.
"It could be that H. floresiensis' skull is that of a Homo erectus that has become dwarfed from living on an island, rather than being an abnormal individual or separately-evolved species, as has been suggested," said Dr Weston, a palaeontologist at the museum.
"Looking at pygmy hippos in Madagascar, which possess exceptionally small brains for their size, suggests that the same could be true for H. floresiensis , and that (it could be) the result of being isolated on the island."
'Ancient text' seized in Israel
Israeli authorities say they have recovered a papyrus document which appears to be nearly 2,000 years old.
The document measures 15cm by 15cm (6in by 6in), and contains 15 lines of ancient Hebrew script.
It appears to be a legal instruction, transferring a widow's property to her late husband's brother.
It was seized from two Palestinian men in a sting operation at a Jerusalem hotel, police said. The two could face several years in jail.
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said on Wednesday that the scroll was an "exceptional archeological document, of the like but a few exist," reported Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
It said similar scrolls had been sold worldwide for sums as high as $5-10m (£3.3-6.6m).
Precise dates
According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the document is written in a style of ancient Hebrew primarily associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls.
These are scriptures and apocalyptic treatises thought to have been collected by an ascetic Jewish community which lived in the desert near the Dead Sea, and preserved by the dry climate.
But it remains unclear exactly where this document was obtained, said police and archaeologists.
Unusually, the first line of the document indicates a precise date, the IAA said - "Year 4 [AD] to the destruction of Israel", which could indicate either AD74, when Jerusalem's Second Temple was destroyed, or AD139, the date of a Jewish revolt violently put down by Rome.
The document appears to concern the transfer of property belonging to a widow called Miriam.
State property
The IAA's Amir Ganor cautioned that the document would have to undergo laboratory analysis to authenticate it.
Under Israeli law, all archaeological artefacts are state property
But he expressed excitement about the discovery, suggesting that the "very important" document could "shed light on how the people of the period managed their affairs and supplement our knowledge about their way of life".
The two suspects were reportedly apprehended while trying to sell the document, by police and Israeli intelligence officers who had planned the operation for weeks.
According to Israeli antiquities law all archaeological artefacts are state property.
The arrested men could be charged with illegally possessing and trafficking the artefacts, and could face years in jail if convicted
The document measures 15cm by 15cm (6in by 6in), and contains 15 lines of ancient Hebrew script.
It appears to be a legal instruction, transferring a widow's property to her late husband's brother.
It was seized from two Palestinian men in a sting operation at a Jerusalem hotel, police said. The two could face several years in jail.
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said on Wednesday that the scroll was an "exceptional archeological document, of the like but a few exist," reported Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
It said similar scrolls had been sold worldwide for sums as high as $5-10m (£3.3-6.6m).
Precise dates
According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the document is written in a style of ancient Hebrew primarily associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls.
These are scriptures and apocalyptic treatises thought to have been collected by an ascetic Jewish community which lived in the desert near the Dead Sea, and preserved by the dry climate.
But it remains unclear exactly where this document was obtained, said police and archaeologists.
Unusually, the first line of the document indicates a precise date, the IAA said - "Year 4 [AD] to the destruction of Israel", which could indicate either AD74, when Jerusalem's Second Temple was destroyed, or AD139, the date of a Jewish revolt violently put down by Rome.
The document appears to concern the transfer of property belonging to a widow called Miriam.
State property
The IAA's Amir Ganor cautioned that the document would have to undergo laboratory analysis to authenticate it.
Under Israeli law, all archaeological artefacts are state property
But he expressed excitement about the discovery, suggesting that the "very important" document could "shed light on how the people of the period managed their affairs and supplement our knowledge about their way of life".
The two suspects were reportedly apprehended while trying to sell the document, by police and Israeli intelligence officers who had planned the operation for weeks.
According to Israeli antiquities law all archaeological artefacts are state property.
The arrested men could be charged with illegally possessing and trafficking the artefacts, and could face years in jail if convicted
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