The Dead Sea Scrolls are known to be an ancient piece of finding discovered by archaeologists in the 1940s. They are mostly Hebrew manuscripts which were found on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, they mark an important discovery in the archaeological sector as they pushed the history of the Hebrew Bible and made historians reconstruct the history of Palestine, previously being 135 CE to 4th century BCE, also effecting emergence rabbinic Judaism and of Christianity and over the early relations between the Jewish and Christian traditions.
How Were They Discovered Initially?
The area around the discovery of the sea scrolls happens to be the setting of the most dramatic biblical stories, in the rocky caves. In the intense heat of the barren Judean Desert, a young Bedouin shepherd got his hands on these scrolls in 1947.
As it was told, this young shepherd belonging to the Ta’amireh tribe had left his flock of goats and sheep to search for a stray. Along the brittle limestone cliffs, near the site of Qumran, the shepherd found a cave on a steep rocky hillside. He threw a stone inside the cave and heard the sound of breaking pots, on entering he found a good number of large clay jars. Most of these jars were empty except the others with their lids intact, within those jars were old scrolls, a few wrapped in linen but blackened with age.
The shepherd along with his several companions took the scrolls to Kando, a Bethlehem antique dealer, for inspection. Surprised by these findings the dealer sent those men back to the caves to find more such treasure, and later they returned with seven scrolls. Not knowing their value the shepherd sold 4 scrolls to this dealer which he resold to the head of the Syrian Orthodox monastery of St. Mark in Jerusalem and the other three to another antique dealer.
This discovery came to be heard by a Hebrew University professor who then let men out to fetch these scrolls from the dealers and presented the scrolls as fragments of leather. On examination by the professor, he recognized the writing as being ancient and was shaken to his bones.
The Scrolls Itself
After the initial discovery, word spread about the scrolls containing Biblical texts along with other ancient writings. This was followed by a series of ongoing excavations spreading outside the Qumran area, south along the western side shore of the Dead Sea.
In over 10 additional caves, various more scrolls were found, consisting of fragments belonging to over 900 different manuscripts. On buying out all the findings, an international team of scholars was appointed to piece together the complex historical puzzle of these small fragments of 900 manuscripts so that they could be published and understood.
The carbon dating results on the piece of linen show it to be dated around 33 CE plus or minus 200 years. Analyzing the letter forms by experts in palaeography shows them to be from around 22 BCE to 50 CE. On analyzing the ink, through cyclotron, it was found that all black ink used on it was carbon black probably retrieved from carbon soot of olive oil lamps commonly mixed with vinegar, honey, oil and water when used for writing and red ink found on the fragments was made out of cinnabar or HgS, mercury sulfide.
These scrolls were written on parchment paper made of vellum or processed animal hide, sheets of bronze consisting of almost 99% copper and the rest as tin and papyrus. These scrolls were found in clay jars and were preserved due to the low humidity, dry and arid conditions of the Qumran region, and even little airflow in the cave itself.
Facts About the Scrolls
The scrolls are divided into two categories, non-biblical and biblical. Fragments of all the books of the Old Testament have been discovered except the book of Esther.
The scrolls have been identified to have 25 copies of Deuteronomy, 19 copies of the Book of Isaiah and 30 copies of the book of Psalms.
The prophecies by Jereiah, Daniel and Ezekiel which are not there in the Bible were found in these scrolls.
The scrolls happen to discuss non-biblical texts discussing topics on the law, liturgical texts, wisdom writings, hymnic compositions, etc.
Most of the scrolls are written n Hebrew but some of them are present in Aramaic, which was the common language in ancient times for the Jews of Palestine, this discovery also expanded our knowledge of these two languages.
The scrolls are suspected to belong to the library of the Jewish sect, hidden away in the caves.
They are most likely connected with the ancient ruins of Qumran.
The scrolls consist of the last words of Judah, Joseph, Levi, Amram and Naphtali.
There is a scroll consisting of the list of 64 underground hiding places in the land of Israel, this is thought to be the treasure from the Temple of Jerusalem, made of silver, gold aromatics and manuscripts.
Written By: Sofia Choudhary
Edited By: Nidhi Jha
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