Qumran קומראן
A settlement above the north-western shore of the Dead Sea and the eleven caves around it, where the oldest manuscripts of the Bible were found.
The place is dry and remote, and that explains everything: in such dryness leather and papyrus lie for millennia, whereas in Jerusalem they would not have lasted a century.
Excavation uncovered here a settlement with cisterns, ritual baths and a room called the scriptorium—with the remains of tables and inkwells. Who lived here is disputed: the common view is a community of Essene type, but that is a supposition and not established.
The caves are the main thing. Eleven of them yielded written remains: the first in 1947, the rest between 1951 and 1956. About three quarters of everything found comes from Cave 4—thousands of fragments from hundreds of manuscripts.
The settlement was destroyed by the Romans about 68 CE, in the same war as the Temple.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Scholarship
- Israel Antiquities Authority, "Discovery Sites" — the eleven caves with written remains, the years of discovery, the share of Cave 4
Basis: documents and evidence.