Dead Sea scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls are about 1,000 documents. They include texts from the Hebrew Bible. They were found between 1947 and 1979 in eleven caves in and around the Wadi Qumran (near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea) in the West Bank. The religious and historical texts are very important as they include practically the only known surviving copies of Biblical documents made before 100 CE. They show evidence of many different beliefs and practices within late Second Temple Judaism.

Fragments of the scrolls on display at the Archaeological Museum, Amman

The caves in which the scrolls were found

Dead Sea Scrolls Media

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  Qumeran's caves

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  A view of the Dead Sea from a cave at Qumran in which some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered

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  The Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa) contains almost the whole Book of Isaiah.

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  The Damascus Document Scroll, 4Q271Df, found in Cave 4

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  4Q7, a fragment of the book of Genesis found in Cave 4

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  Dead Sea Scroll fragments 7Q4, 7Q5, and 7Q8 from Cave 7 in Qumran, written on papyrus

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  A view of part of the Temple Scroll that was found in Qumran Cave 11

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  Fragments 1 and 2 of '7Q6' from Cave 7 are written on papyrus.

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  Two of the pottery jars that held some of the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran

Related pages

• Shrine of the Book