The Copper Scroll: The Dead Sea Treasure List

The Copper Scroll is the strangest of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Found in 1952 in a cave near Qumran, above the north-western shore of the Dead Sea, it is not a book of scripture or a set of community rules but a list: around 64 places where gold, silver and other valuables were said to be hidden. It was engraved on thin sheets of copper rather than written in ink on leather or papyrus, its Hebrew is unlike that of the other scrolls, and it was so corroded that it had to be cut into strips before anyone could read it.

No treasure from its list has ever been found. More than seventy years on, scholars still disagree about whether it records a real hidden fortune, perhaps connected with the Temple in Jerusalem, a piece of folklore, or something nobody has yet explained. In recent years the original has been displayed at the Jordan Museum in Amman, which is why this unusual object sits at the heart of the Jordan chapter of Leon McFarlane's planned walk from the southern tip of Africa to Windsor.

What is the Copper Scroll?

Scholars know it as 3Q15: item 15 from Qumran Cave 3. Unlike the first scrolls, which were found by Bedouin shepherds, it was discovered in March 1952 by an archaeological team surveying the cliffs around Qumran. It lay in two rolls that had once been a single long strip of copper sheets joined together, more than two metres long in total. Two thousand years of corrosion had turned the metal brittle, and the rolls could not be opened without crumbling.

When it was finally read, it turned out to be a kind of inventory. A typical entry names a place (a ruin, a cistern, a tomb, a valley or a channel), gives directions or a depth measured in cubits, and states what lies buried there, often in talents of silver or gold, or vessels and other goods. Several entries are followed by Greek letters whose purpose is still unclear. The final entry appears to refer to a second copy of the document, with fuller explanations, hidden somewhere else.

An unusual kind of Hebrew

Most of the Dead Sea Scrolls are written in a literary Hebrew close to that of the Bible, or in Aramaic. The Copper Scroll's language is closer to the later Hebrew of the Mishnah, with everyday vocabulary, irregular spellings and a number of words that appear nowhere else. The engraving is uneven, and some letter shapes are hard to tell apart, which may suggest an engraver copying a text rather than a practised scribe composing one.

All of this makes translation genuinely difficult. Place names that would have meant something to the writer are now unidentifiable, and a single uncertain word can change where an entry seems to point. That is why published translations of the Copper Scroll differ, sometimes considerably, and why any claim to have "cracked" its geography deserves careful scrutiny.

How the Copper Scroll was opened

For several years after its discovery, nobody could agree how to read the scroll safely. The solution came from Manchester. In 1955 and 1956 the rolls were taken to the Manchester College of Science and Technology, where the engineer Professor H. Wright Baker devised a way to coat each roll, mount it on a spindle and cut it lengthwise with a very fine saw into curved strips. Each strip could then be cleaned, photographed and read from the inside.

John Marco Allegro, a lecturer at Manchester and a member of the international team working on the scrolls, was closely involved in arranging the work and was among the first to read the text. He published his own translation and commentary in 1960, and the official edition, prepared by the Polish scholar Józef Milik, followed in 1962. In the early 1960s Allegro also led searches in the Judaean Desert and the Jordan valley for some of the listed sites. They found no treasure.

Real treasure, legend, or something else?

The debate about the Copper Scroll turns on a simple puzzle: the amounts listed are enormous, far beyond what a small desert community is likely to have owned, yet the document was engraved on metal, an expensive and laborious choice that suggests somebody wanted it to last. The main explanations are these:

• Temple treasure. Many scholars have suggested that the list records valuables from the Temple in Jerusalem, hidden around the time of the Jewish revolt against Rome, which ended with the Temple's destruction in 70 CE.
• Community wealth. Others have linked it to the group associated with Qumran, though the sheer quantities make this hard to sustain.
• Folklore. Milik himself argued that the scroll preserved legendary traditions of hidden treasure rather than a working record.
• A later date. A minority place it after 70 CE, for example as a record of offerings collected once the Temple had gone, or in the period of the second revolt in the 130s CE.

Dating is itself part of the argument. Most estimates, based on the handwriting and language, place it somewhere in the first century CE, but there is no consensus. There are also several reasons the caches may never be found even if they were real: the landmarks have changed or vanished, the descriptions only made sense to insiders, and anything hidden could have been recovered in antiquity. It is equally possible they never existed. Absence of discovery is evidence worth weighing, but it does not prove any particular story about where the treasure went.

Where is the Copper Scroll now?

The Copper Scroll was found while the area around Qumran was under Jordanian administration, and it has remained in Jordan. For many years it was shown at the Jordan Archaeological Museum on the Amman Citadel, and in recent years the strips have been displayed at the Jordan Museum in central Amman, alongside other material from the Dead Sea region. Displays can change, so anyone travelling specifically to see it should check with the museum before visiting. Most of the other Dead Sea Scrolls are held in Jerusalem.

On the road through Jordan

The walk's current plan crosses Jordan from south to north, from the desert near Aqaba through the highlands towards Madaba and Amman. You can see the full provisional line on the route page. Leon hopes to see the Copper Scroll in Amman if the original is on display, and to spend time with the questions it raises: who decides how an ancient text is read, and what happens when a find captures the public imagination faster than scholars can study it.

There is also something fitting about meeting this object on foot. Its entries are directions through a landscape: so many cubits from a ruin, beside a channel, under a step. A walker reads country in much the same way, by water, ridges and old paths, and the hills of the Judaean Desert are visible across the Dead Sea valley from the Jordanian side. Those curious about other ancient texts and lost objects on the route might enjoy our pieces on the 81-book Ethiopian Bible and the Ark of the Covenant tradition at Aksum.

The plan is for an act of kindness to be paid for wherever the walk passes, each one recorded on the public kindness ledger. You can read who Leon is, follow his journal once he is walking, or support the walk as it heads north.

Frequently asked questions

Has the Copper Scroll treasure ever been found?

No. Several searches, including those led by John Allegro in the early 1960s, have failed to identify any of the listed caches, and no object has been convincingly linked to the scroll.

Where is the Copper Scroll kept?

It is held in Jordan and in recent years has been displayed at the Jordan Museum in Amman. Check with the museum before travelling, as displays can change.

How many hiding places does the Copper Scroll list?

Around 64, depending on how the entries are counted. The last appears to point to a second copy of the list with further explanations.

Is the Copper Scroll one of the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Yes. It was found in Cave 3 near Qumran and is counted among the Dead Sea Scrolls, but its material, language and contents make it unlike any other text in the collection.