Ancient Mysteries in Desert Caves

The incredible story of the Dead Sea Scrolls and why they matter

I can’t forget the first time I heard about the Dead Sea Scrolls. I was just a kid, maybe 12, flipping through one of Dad’s shiny history books. There was this picture of an old, crumbling scroll next to a story about a shepherd boy who found ancient treasures while looking for his lost goat.

Years later, I stood in the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, looking at these ancient texts behind glass. I’d traveled halfway around the world partly because I never got over that childhood wonder.

The discovery that sounds made up

The whole thing sounds like something from a movie! In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd named Muhammed was climbing around cliffs by the Dead Sea, looking for a lost goat. Frustrated, he threw a rock into a cave.

Instead of an echo, he heard pottery breaking.

When he went inside to look, he found clay jars with ancient scrolls carefully wrapped up. He had no idea he’d just found what experts would later call “the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century.”

Over the next ten years, researchers and local explorers found eleven caves with scrolls near Qumran. They collected pieces from…