Jericho and Dead Sea area and River Jordan. Qumran, caves of Dead Sea scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in a series of twelve caves around the site known as Wadi Qumran near the Dead Sea in the West Bank (of the Jordan River) between 1946 and 1956 by Bedouin shepherds and a team of archaeologists. The texts have great historical, religious, and linguistic significance because they include the second-oldest known surviving manuscripts of works later included in the Hebrew Bible canon, along with deuterocanonical and extra-biblical manuscripts which preserve evidence of the diversity of religious thought in late Second Temple Judaism. Most of the texts use Hebrew, with some written in Aramaic, and a few in Greek. Most of the texts are written on parchment, some on papyrus, and one on copper. Matson Photo Service, 1947-61. |