The landscape where the Dead Sea Scrolls lay hidden for almost 1900 years is forbidding. The Dead Sea lies 400 meters below sea level at the base of the Great Rift Valley, famous in Africa as the origin point of some of the most ancient human relations we have. The Dead Sea is 30% saline, ten times higher than that of any ocean. No fish live in the Dead Sea, and fresh water is hard to come by in this region; the closest sweet water source to the settlement of Qumran is nine miles away at Jericho. Water from the Wadi Qumran is brackish; and water for the inhabitants was collected in a cistern from surface runoff, fed by water channels connected to an aqueduct.
Above Qumran, the steep escarpments rise some 800-1000 meters above sea level. Some of the caves in which the Qumran scholars left their scrolls are natural openings in the rugged limestone and dolomite cliffs; others were carved into the ancient marl terrace deposited by an earlier sea water level. Written between 250 BCE and about 68-70 CE, the Dead Sea Scrolls are the earliest copies we have of many ancient Jewish manuscripts.
This photograph is of Cave 4, where approximately 500 manuscripts were discovered by bedouins in 1952. The scrolls stored in Cave 4 were placed on the floor or on wooden shelves, and the utter fragmentation of these fragile documents made it difficult to reassemble all the pieces. Scholars believe that Cave 4, located only 500 meters from the site of Qumran, was either the community's archive or the repository for the sect's scrolls when the inhabitants were forced to flee Qumran in 68 CE.
Above Qumran, the steep escarpments rise some 800-1000 meters above sea level. Some of the caves in which the Qumran scholars left their scrolls are natural openings in the rugged limestone and dolomite cliffs; others were carved into the ancient marl terrace deposited by an earlier sea water level. Written between 250 BCE and about 68-70 CE, the Dead Sea Scrolls are the earliest copies we have of many ancient Jewish manuscripts.
This photograph is of Cave 4, where approximately 500 manuscripts were discovered by bedouins in 1952. The scrolls stored in Cave 4 were placed on the floor or on wooden shelves, and the utter fragmentation of these fragile documents made it difficult to reassemble all the pieces. Scholars believe that Cave 4, located only 500 meters from the site of Qumran, was either the community's archive or the repository for the sect's scrolls when the inhabitants were forced to flee Qumran in 68 CE.
Primary Source
- Jodi Magness, 2002. The Archaeology of the Dead Sea Scrolls. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
