Where Were the Dead Sea Scrolls Found?

Where were the Dead Sea Scrolls found? In eleven caves in the cliffs near Qumran, on the north-western shore of the Dead Sea, between 1947 and 1956, with related manuscripts found at other sites in the Judaean Desert in the same period. Qumran lies in what is today the West Bank. When the first scrolls came to light it was under Jordanian administration; since 1967 it has been occupied by Israel.

That geography matters, because the scrolls are often loosely associated with Jordan. Jordan belongs to their modern story of excavation, custody and scholarship, and one famous scroll is displayed in Amman, but the caves themselves are not in present-day Jordan. This article explains where and how the scrolls were found, what they contain, how old they are, and where they are kept now.

How the Dead Sea Scrolls were found

The first scrolls were found in late 1946 or early 1947 by Bedouin shepherds of the Ta'amireh tribe, searching for a stray animal in the cliffs above the shore. According to the most familiar account, a young shepherd threw a stone into a cave opening and heard pottery break. Inside were tall clay jars, some holding rolled manuscripts wrapped in linen. Details of the story vary between tellings, but the outcome is not in doubt: seven scrolls from what became known as Cave 1 reached antiquities dealers in Bethlehem.

Some were bought by Eleazar Sukenik of the Hebrew University; others were acquired by the Syrian Orthodox Metropolitan of Jerusalem and later sold, via an advertisement in an American newspaper in 1954, to buyers acting for Israel. Meanwhile, archaeologists and Bedouin searchers combed the surrounding cliffs. Between 1952 and 1956 ten more caves with written material were identified near Qumran. Cave 4, close to the ruins of the Qumran settlement, produced the largest haul: thousands of fragments from hundreds of manuscripts. Cave 3, explored in 1952, yielded the text that is still one of the great puzzles of the collection: the Copper Scroll, a list of hidden treasure engraved on metal.

What do the Dead Sea Scrolls contain?

Altogether, the Qumran caves produced remains of around 900 manuscripts, most surviving only as fragments. They are written mainly in Hebrew, with a significant number in Aramaic and a few in Greek, on parchment and papyrus. Broadly, they fall into three groups:

• Books of the Hebrew Bible. Roughly a quarter of the manuscripts are biblical. Every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther is represented, at least in fragments. The Great Isaiah Scroll from Cave 1 is almost complete and around a thousand years older than the medieval manuscripts on which earlier editions of the Hebrew Bible relied.
• Other Jewish religious writings already known from later copies or translations, such as Enoch and Jubilees, alongside many previously unknown psalms, prayers and interpretations.
• Texts of a particular community, such as the Community Rule, the War Scroll and commentaries that read biblical prophecy as referring to the writers' own time.

For historians, they are the largest body of Jewish texts surviving from the Second Temple period, and an extraordinary window into the religious world in which rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity later took shape.

How old are the scrolls, and who wrote them?

Handwriting analysis and radiocarbon dating place most of the manuscripts between roughly the third century BCE and the first century CE. The settlement at Qumran appears to have been destroyed around 68 CE, during the Jewish revolt against Rome, which gives a likely latest date for the deposits there.

Who wrote or owned them is still debated. The excavator of Qumran, the French Dominican scholar Roland de Vaux, linked the site and the scrolls to the Essenes, a Jewish movement described by ancient writers including Pliny the Elder, who placed a community of Essenes on the western shore of the Dead Sea. That view remains widely held in some form. Other scholars argue that the scrolls came from several groups, or that some were brought from Jerusalem and hidden in the caves for safekeeping, and they interpret the Qumran ruins differently. The honest summary is that a connection between the settlement and many of the scrolls is likely, but no single theory explains everything.

What the scrolls do not show

Because they are famous, the scrolls attract big claims. Most scholars would caution against several:

• That one simple community wrote every scroll. The collection is varied, and many texts were clearly copied from elsewhere.
• That they mention Jesus or prove a particular modern theology. They do not name Jesus or the early Christians, though they illuminate the world from which early Christianity emerged.
• That they were concealed by authorities to hide inconvenient truths. Publication of some fragments was very slow, which caused real controversy, but all the material has now been published and much of it can be viewed online.

Where are the Dead Sea Scrolls kept today?

Most of the Dead Sea Scrolls are held in Jerusalem. The best-known scrolls from Cave 1, including the Great Isaiah Scroll, are in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum, which opened in 1965. Most of the remaining fragments are in the care of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Many were studied for years at the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem, which before 1967 was the Palestine Archaeological Museum under Jordanian administration.

Jordan holds the Copper Scroll and some other fragments, and in recent years these have been displayed at the Jordan Museum in Amman. The question of ownership remains sensitive, and it has been raised by Jordanian and Palestinian authorities as well as Israeli ones. Physical custody, in other words, is not the same as a settled answer about whose heritage the scrolls are.

On the road through Jordan

The walk's current plan crosses Jordan from south to north; you can see the provisional line on the route page. The Qumran caves lie across the Dead Sea valley, outside Jordan, and the route beyond Jordan has not yet been decided. Leon hopes to explore the scrolls' story from the Jordanian side, including the Copper Scroll in Amman if it is on display, while being careful not to treat a museum in Amman as a substitute for the places and people on the other side of the valley.

The scrolls belong to a thread that runs through the whole route: how sacred texts survive, who keeps them and who gets to read them. Earlier in the walk, Ethiopia offers a very different example in the 81-book Ethiopian Bible, and Egypt has its own story of lost knowledge in the destruction of the Library of Alexandria.

In every place Leon passes, the plan is for an act of kindness to be paid for and recorded on the kindness ledger. Read about Leon, follow the journal once he is walking, or support the walk.

Frequently asked questions

Were the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Jordan?

No. They were found in caves near Qumran, now in the West Bank. The area was under Jordanian administration at the time of the first discoveries, which is why Jordan is part of their history.

Who found the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Bedouin shepherds of the Ta'amireh tribe found the first scrolls around 1947. Later caves were found by both Bedouin searchers and archaeologists.

How old are the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Most date from roughly the third century BCE to the first century CE.

Can you see the Dead Sea Scrolls in Amman?

The Jordan Museum in Amman has in recent years displayed the Copper Scroll and some fragments. Check with the museum before visiting, as displays change.