The ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts, known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE, were discovered in 1946/7 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. Considered to be a keystone in the history of archaeology with great historical, religious, and linguistic significance, they include the oldest surviving manuscripts of entire books later included in the biblical canons, along with deuterocanonical and extra-biblical manuscripts which preserve evidence of the diversity of religious thought in late Second Temple Judaism. At the same time they cast new light on the emergence of Christianity and of Rabbinic Judaism.
Most of the scrolls are held by Israel in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum, but their ownership is disputed by Jordan due to the Qumran Caves’ history: following the End of the British Mandate for Palestine in 1947, Jordan occupied the area in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and Israel captured both it and several scrolls claimed by Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War. As a result, some of the scrolls are still in Jordan and are now displayed at The Jordan Museum in Amman. Ownership of the scrolls is also contested by the State of Palestine.
Most of the texts in the scrolls are 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.
-Wikipedia
Part of Dead Sea Scroll 28a from Qumran Cave 1. The Jordan Museum, Amman – Wikipedia
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