Dead Sea Scrolls

The scrolls include portions of every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther, with the Great Isaiah Scroll being one of the best-preserved and oldest complete copies. Many date the Isaiah scroll to around 125 BC. Fragments of previously unknown sectarian texts, like the Community Rule, were also found.

The majority are held at the Shrine of the Book, part of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, which was built specifically for their display. Some fragments remain in collections at institutions such as Jordan's Archaeological Museum. Digital scans have been published online through the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.

Most scholars attribute them to a Jewish sect based at the nearby Qumran settlement, widely linked to the Essenes described by Josephus and Pliny. The settlement ruin is located on a marl terrace overlooking the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. The debate continues, as the library may include scrolls brought from Jerusalem.

Bedouin shepherd Muhammed edh-Dhib reportedly found the first cave, later designated Cave 1, in 1947 after throwing a stone into a cliffside opening and hearing pottery shatter. Over the following decade, eleven caves around Qumran yielded thousands of fragments, many acquired by the Israel Antiquities Authority from the mid-1950s onward.