A cache of Roman weapons has been found in an inaccessible cave in Israel near the shore of the Dead Sea.

Delighting the discoverers, archaeologists believe that they were taken off of Roman soldiers and stored there by Judean rebels resisting Roman imperial incursions.

"Finding a single sword is rare-so four? It's a dream! We rubbed our eyes to believe it," the researchers said in a statement released by the Israeli Antiquities Authority.

The finding consisted of four swords and the Roman fighting/throwing spear called the pilum, which was a key part of the fighting system the Romans used to dominate the world.

Some of the swords were kept in scabbards of carved wood or leather, while the shaft of the pilum had long ago disintegrated to leave the iron point behind. Three of them measured between 24 to 26 inches long, while a fourth was even shorter.

"The hiding of the swords and the pilum in deep cracks in the isolated cave north of 'En Gedi, hints that the weapons were taken as booty from Roman soldiers or from the battlefield, and purposely hidden by the Judean rebels for reuse," said Eitan Klein, one of the directors of the Judean Desert Survey Project.

Alongside the iron weapons was a bronze coin dating to 135 CE, which could be a corresponding date for the swords according to the press release, since this was the year of the fiercest fighting of the second Jewish Revolt, when, after personally taking the field himself, Emperor Hadrian dispatched his generals to utterly crush what had been up to that point an organized and successful revolt by the people of Judaea.

"This is a dramatic and exciting discovery, touching on a specific moment in time. Not all are aware that the dry climatic conditions pertaining to the Judean Desert enable the preservation of artifacts that do not survive in other parts of the country," Eli Escusido, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in the statement.

"This is a unique time capsule, whereby fragments of scrolls, coins from the Jewish Revolt, leather sandals, and now even swords in their scabbards [sic], sharp as if they had only just been hidden away today."

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