The home of the Dead Sea scrolls

Kalpana Sunder

A young Bedouin shepherd was nervous… his goats had climbed high cliffs overlooking the Dead Sea… he chased the errant goats inside a cave and threw stones inside to get them out… it splintered mud jars holding ancient manuscripts… preserved over millennia by the dry desert air! The shepherd had stumbled upon what was the ‘greatest archeological discovery of the twentieth century.’

The space is a dimly lit room. It looks more like a restaurant or nightclub, than a museum. The focus of the room is a giant scroll-shaped panel…The story has all the elements and plot of an action-packed thriller. The story of the ancient Dead Sea scrolls is fascinating — with various twists and turns in the plot, these were lost and recovered, hoarded, the subject of academic feuds, lawsuits, etc....

The Israel Museum in Jerusalem is the largest cultural institution in the country and one of the most famous art and archaeological museums in the world; it was established as the national museum in 1965. The most important part of the museum called the Shrine of the Book, houses the illustrious Dead Sea scrolls, as well as artefacts from the historic site of Masada. Hundreds of visitors congregate within the walls of the Israel Museum each year, which also includes a special wing for children.

The Dead Sea scrolls, so named, because the 11 caves where they were is located a mile from the north shore of the Dead Sea — are a collection of 972 texts written between roughly 200 BCE and 70 CE, during the time of the Roman Empire, and the birth of Christianity. Experts believe that these were written by an ascetic group of Jews called the Essenes, who inhabited the area for about 300 years. The Dead Sea scrolls were discovered in a series of caves in the late 1940s and early 1950s by Bedouin shepherds. Most of these were written on parchment, and some on papyrus and the scrolls had rested, undisturbed for two millennia, preserved by the dry desert air. The scrolls are for the most part, written in Hebrew, but there are many written in Aramaic. Some say that people hid the scrolls in the Qumran caves to preserve that vast library of religious and secular texts from the approaching Romans, prior to the fall of Jerusalem. Many of the scrolls were cut into bits by Bedouins with no awareness of its value and were taped together soon after their discovery, as researchers tried to piece the puzzle of the fragments back together.

The building that houses the Dead Sea scrolls has a white, curved roof that is designed to recall the shape of the clay jars in which the scrolls were found. The dark room looks almost like a cave where the original jars with the first scrolls were discovered. “”Because the scrolls are so fragile, they are displayed using a system of rotation. After a scroll has been exhibited for three to six months, it is removed from its showcase and placed in a special storeroom, where it “rests” from exposure,” explains Paule, our guide.

Outside in the Museum grounds, there’s a scale model of Jerusalem’s Old City and Jerusalem of 2,000 years ago.The Second Temple Period Jerusalem Model is a miniature model of the city of Jerusalem, based on the description of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD in the writing of Josephus Flavius. This 21,000-square-foot model of Jerusalem is the city during the time of Jesus. Sights such as the Hebrew University, Monastery of the Cross, where a tree was cut to build the cross upon which Jesus was crucified.What is amazing about this model is that it has been subsequently adapted over the years according to further archeological discoveries and research carried out in the Old City of Jerusalem!

The Israel Museum has many other stellar attractions like synagogues that have been relocated from different countries, an extensive collection of biblical and Holy Land archaeology in the world and even a third century mosaic floor from Nablus depicting events in the life of Achilles. The museum’s celebrated Billy Rose Art Garden was designed for the original campus by Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi…But it’s the Dead Sea scrolls with their mystique and ancient allure that make one’s day.