To begin our tour of Amman, the capital of Jordan, our guide Rami took us to the ancient Citadel which overlooks the town, and also houses the Jordan Archaeological Museum. I was totally blown away to see this simple sign over the doorway of a small room.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were found at Qumran, a few hundred metres north west from the shoreline of the Dead Sea. The Essenes were a Jewish sect who wanted to re-establish the pure heritage of Judaism. They formed secret societies within towns, but small groups preferred to establish themselves in isolated communities, often in the desert itself. Qumran was one of these communities, and the town was destroyed by the Romans in 69-70 AD. In 1947, some Bedouins who live on the shore of the Dead Sea, found jars containing scrolls in the caves and clefts of the cliff face at Qumran. The great age of these scrolls was soon recognised, and an investigation of the area began.
Eleven caves yielded ten complete scrolls, in the form of kidskin, sewn end to end, and rolled up, and inserted into long narrow sealed jars. 50 broken jars and fragments of more than 600 badly damaged manuscripts have also been discovered, and are still being pieced together.
The collection spans more than two centuries from the end of the 3rd century BC. Texts are written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. All of the books of the Old Testament are included, plus documents concerning the activities of the Essene sect.
The Qumran library also includes some copper scrolls in the form of strips 2.4 metres long, engraved in Aramaic script, giving descriptions of treasure troves hidden in Palestine (which have never been found).
Fragment of Dead Sea Scroll, written on kidskin. (Don’t know what it actually says.)
Copper Scroll, and jars which were used to keep the scrolls.
Yes, the actual tables and benches!
Actual tables and benches don’t look too comfortable.
Site of manuscript cave near Qumran in 1949. Doesn’t look as though there was too much to do here except write scrolls.
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