Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Dead Sea Scrolls
In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd, in
search of a lost goat near the
Dead Sea, entered a cave and
discovered jars containing seven
ancient scrolls. Over the next
two decades fragments of some
800 more were found in 11 caves.
At the same time, archaeologists,
looking for signs of habitation,
uncovered the nearby settlement
of Qumran
(see p191)
. The scrolls
had been written in the Late Second
Temple period, between the 3rd century
BC and AD 68. Some contain the
oldest existing versions of biblical
scriptures. Others are tracts on
history, daily life and the messi-
anic predictions of a Hebrew sect
generally identified with the sepa-
ratist and monastic Essenes. Since
the discovery of the scrolls, their
interpretation, the identity and
mission of their authors and the
significance of nearby Qumran
have been the subject of passionate
academic and theological debate.
Jar in which
scrolls were
found
The Shrine of the Book
is dominated
by a dramatic display case, which
contains a copy of the Great Isaiah
Scroll. It was designed to look like the
wooden rods around which the Torah
scrolls are rolled for readings at
synagogue services.
The reconstruction
of
housands of scroll frag-
nts is still being carried
t by researchers hoping
to unravel the mysteries
urrounding the scrolls.
parchment
on which
crolls were written
made from sheepskin.
wells found near a
e at Qumran suggest
riptorium - a room
for copying manuscripts.
The Great Isaiah Scroll
is the largest
and best preserved of the scrolls. Written
around 100 BC, it is 1,000 years older
than the oldest biblical manuscript
known before the finds at Qumran.
Qumran was excavated
by
Roland de Vaux, a French
Dominican friar. He believed that
the settlement was a communal
retreat used by the Essenes.
