Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls on display in a shrine. They were first discovered in 1947, in caves at Qumran, Jordan. The text of the scrolls is published on the Internet for public use.

Collection of ancient scrolls (rolls of writing) and fragments of scrolls found 1947–56 in caves on the western side of the Jordan, at Qumran. They include copies of Old Testament books a thousand years older than those previously known to be extant. The documents date mainly about 150 BC–AD 68, when the monastic community that owned them, the Essenes, was destroyed by the Romans because of its support for a revolt against their rule.

The total of 800 manuscripts, containing all the books of the Old Testament except Esther, were publicly available for the first time 1986. Before this, only half the scrolls were published and only 15 scholars had access to them. They were made available for inspection on the Internet April 1996, one of the first times ancient material has been made available in this way.

The caves were located 12 km/7 mi south of Jericho and 2 km/l mi from the north end of the Dead Sea.