Cave of Horrors Reveals New Dead Sea Scrolls and a 6,000-Year-Old Skeleton

Yet, the story is far from over, as the Qumran region continues to reveal more ancient secrets.

Bedouin shepherds discovered the parchment scrolls hidden in a cave in 1946. Over the course of the next century, scholars would pour over the texts to learn about events that took place more than two millennia ago. 

Three Bedouin shepherds were tending to their goats and sheep near Qumran, an ancient city in what is now the West Bank. When one of the young shepherds threw a rock into a crack in a cliff, he was startled to hear something break. Another of the shepherds later fell into the cave and discovered a number of enormous clay jars.

Edh-Dhib took a few scrolls—later identified as the Isaiah Scroll, the Habakkuk Commentary, and the Community Rule—back to the camp to show his family. Luckily, all of the documents remained undamaged. While they deliberated what to do with them, the Bedouin shepherds kept the ancient manuscripts hanging on a tent pole and showed them off to their people.

However, the Bedouins persevered, travelling next to a local market, where a Christian Syrian offered to buy the scrolls. A sheik overheard them and recommended they visit Kando, a part-time antique dealer who could buy their discovery at a fair price. Thus, the Bedouins went home with money and minus three scrolls. The ancient documents would eventually find their way into the hands of several academics who determined their age to be well over 2,000 years.

In 1947, John C. Trever of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) examined the original seven scrolls. He discovered parallels between its texts and those found in the Nash Papyrus, the earliest biblical document at the time. Later, some of the scrolls were transported to Beirut, Lebanon, for safekeeping due to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Sellers attempted to pay Syrian locals to find the cave, but he was unable to meet their price. The Jordanian government eventually allowed the Arab Legion to examine the old Qumran cave in early 1949. The legion confirmed it was indeed where the original scroll fragments came from, so they named it Cave 1.

The department then explored another cave one kilometer north of Wadi Qumran, where it found 70 new fragments, including pieces of the first seven scrolls. The new fragments, along with jars and linen cloths, confirmed the dates of the scrolls predicted by paleographic research.

Roland de Vaux and the ASOR crew then started full excavations in Qumran. In February of 1952, the Bedouins found thirty pieces in the area that would later be called Cave 2. Here, archaeologists unearthed 300 manuscript pieces from 33 different texts, including fragments of the Hebrew books, ‘Jubilees,’ and the ‘Wisdom of Sirach.’

Archbishop Mar Samuel made the announcement, after he smuggled the manuscripts to a Syrian church in New Jersey in the late 1940s due to unrest in Palestine. The scrolls stayed in the church until he made the decision to sell them. Yigael Yadin, an Israeli archaeologist, negotiated with an American broker to purchase the four scrolls for the State of Israel.

It is the oldest complete copy of the Book of Isaiah, a thousand years older than other known Hebrew manuscripts at the time. The manuscript is large, measuring 734 cm, and is inscribed on 17 sheets of parchment. What’s more is that it is the only fragment from Cave 1 that is completely preserved. 

The Pesher links several modern people to the scroll with their titles. It mentions the Teacher of Righteousness, a figure found in some other Dead Sea scrolls who is an ideal and charismatic leader of the Jewish community. The identity of this figure is still under speculation with many theories coming up.

The text captures a conversation between father and son, Lamech and Noah. Scholars think the Essenes may have written the Genesis Apocryphon. Roland de Vaux claims it might be an original document as there aren’t any copies in the other 820 fragments at Qumran.

The Damascus Document is, however, a fragmented manuscript and scholars have attempted to piece together the original text. Still, the proper order of the text remains a mystery and the medieval version seems shorter than the Qumran version of the document. 

Those who support this theory compare the writings of the Roman, Flavius Josephus, and the Community Rule, a scroll describing Jewish ordinances, with both texts describing similar ceremonies and rituals. 

Additionally, numerous manuscripts include Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible, a language also used by the Essenes. Although there is no way to detect the language of a severely fragmented document, some Qumran texts, like the Enoch and Tobit, are both preserved in Hebrew and Aramaic.

This strange document has peculiar codes in Hebrew and Greek letters chipped onto metal sheets. Some speculate this was done as a preservation technique, even though the other documents are in ink on parchment or leather. The metal scrolls outline 64 underground vaults around Israel that are said to have treasures hidden for safekeeping, however, these treasure hoards have never been found. 

A black basalt wall is located opposite the white dome, symbolizing the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness, according to some interpretations. Scholars say that the colors and shapes of the building are based on the imagery of the Scroll of the War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness.

The Great Isaiah Scroll is the centerpiece of the Shrine of the Book. All seven original scrolls are on display in the shrine, on a rotating basis as the fragile texts cannot be on continuous display. When a scroll has been put on view for three to six months, it is taken out of its showcase and briefly stored in a designated area where it “rests” from public view.

The newly launched website, a collaboration with Google, gives access to high-resolution, searchable photos of the scrolls and short videos that translate the scrolls and provide background details. So far, the project has digitally preserved the Great Isaiah Scroll, the Community Rule Scroll, the Commentary on Habakkuk Scroll, the Temple Scroll, and the War Scroll.

In March 2021, new fragments were discovered in a cave in the Judean Desert, the first ones in 60 years. The discovery happened during a national initiative that was started in 2017 to search all Judean Desert caves and ravines for artifacts from prehistoric and biblical eras. 

Archaeologists have known about the historical cave since 1953, but it wasn’t discovered until 1961. Israeli archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni and his team made the discovery as part of an extensive operation by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) to look for new texts.

In 1955, explorers of the cave descended a 100-meter-long rope ladder to search for the cave’s entrance. Numerous skeletons, including those of children, were found inside the cave, earning it the moniker “Cave of Horror.” Personal documents, a Hebrew prayer written in pieces, and the scrolls were some of the belongings found alongside the skeletons.

The lack of injuries on the skeletons indicates that their demise may have been brought on by starvation, dehydration, or smoke inhalation from a fire in the cave’s central chamber. The refugees buried their most valuable possessions, including a scroll whose fragments were found in 2021. After the cave’s initial discovery, the Israel Antiquities Authority reopened the dig in 2017.

In addition to the basket, archaeologists also discovered older Dead Sea scrolls and Bar Kokhba Revolt-era coinage. Those are not the only things the diggers found in the Cave of Horrors. 

Some scroll pieces are Greek translations of the Jewish Tanakh’s Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets, containing Nahum and Zechariah’s biblical books. The sole Hebrew in the text, however, is God’s name, as the scrolls were likely secreted during the revolt. 

The Greek Minor Prophets scroll uses the Hebrew word for God, following Exodus 20:7’s warning against using God’s name in vain, and documenting several methods for correctly reading the Hebrew name aloud. The intriguing discovery likely elated the archaelogists involved in the dig, however, as they worked, they stumbled upon something that shocked them.

He said that due to the cave’s climate, a natural mummification process had occurred, leaving the skin, tendons, and even hair preserved mainly despite the passage of time—precisely 6,000 years. The mummified remains’ age meant that it is older than the Dead Sea Scrolls. Of course, the team had to study the body further to determine gender, age, and cause of death. 

The youngster also held a tiny bundle of cloth in her hands. Other ancient items found alongside the mummified child were arrowheads and a lice comb. They were not as old as the mummy, though, because the items were from the Bar Kochba revolt period.

Since the scrolls were first found, at least one modern museum collection has acquired fake versions of the ancient manuscripts. The significance of the newly discovered document fragments cannot be overstated. That’s why the Cave of Horrors raises the question of how many scrolls and historical secrets are still out there, waiting to be discovered.