This week's photo essay is on the Dead Sea Scrolls, some 900 fragmented and complete documents recovered in the mid-twentieth century from eleven caves located near the small site of Qumran off the western shore of the Dead Sea in Israel.

Some of the Qumran caves are natural openings in the rugged limestone and dolomite cliffs; others were carved into the soft marl terrace. Written between 250 BCE and about 68-70 CE, the Dead Sea Scrolls are the earliest copies we have of many ancient Jewish manuscripts. The photo essay was assembled using photographs from a 2006 exhition at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle Washington, photographs provided by the Israeli Antiquities Authority and text from Jodi Magness's book, The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

• The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Photo Essay
• The Dead Sea Scrolls (more on the archaeology)
• The Dead Sea Scrolls (more on the ancient history)
• Discovering the Dead Sea Scrolls (exhibition overview from the Pacific Science Center)
• Israeli Antiquities Authority
• The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls