Dead Sea Scrolls
Manuscritos del mar Muerto
- Date
- 1946-1956 · confidence high
- Place
- Caves of Qumran, West Bank
- Credited to
- Bedouin shepherd Muhammed edh-Dhib; Roland de Vaux (excavations)
- People
- 👤 Roland de Vaux1903–1971
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
A Bedouin shepherd found jars with scrolls in a cave; some 900 Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek manuscripts, from between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE, were found in eleven caves, including the oldest known biblical texts, a thousand years older than the medieval manuscripts.
Coordinates of Cave 1 at Qumran. Publication was delayed for decades by a small team's monopoly, until 1991. Ownership of the manuscripts is disputed among Israel, Jordan and Palestine.
What it led to
- Revision of the textual history of the Hebrew Bible
- Knowledge of Second Temple Judaism and the origins of Christianity
- Radiocarbon dating of texts
- Digitisation of manuscripts
Built on
- Cairo Geniza manuscripts
- Biblical archaeology
Made possible
- DNA analysis of scrolls
- Multispectral imaging of texts