Qumran

Here, the Dead Sea scrolls were found. In 1947 a Bedouin discovered the cave while looking for his lost goat. He threw rocks into the hole thinking the goat might have gone inside. Instead, he heard the breaking of pottery. The man broke the scrolls into fragments and sold them in pieces. Archaeologists have sought to find these pieces (some were on ebay- no joke) and later discovered 13 additional caves with scrolls. The scrolls included most books of the Hebrew Bible plus writings writings from the Essene community (an all male monastery-like community that set themselves apart from the “corrupt” Jewish community of the time). It is believed that these men hid their manuscripts in these caves shortly before they were destroyed by the Romans in 70 ad. These scrolls provided manuscripts from the Old Testament that date more that 1,000 years older than any others we have. The scroll of Isaiah, in particular, is almost exactly as it is today.
*Most interesting – my teacher David Seeley was one of the scholars chosen to handle and to translate these scrolls for publication.