Discovery Timeline

• They were sold to an antiquities dealer who contacted the Syrian Orthodox monastery of St. Mark. 4 more scrolls were found in the cave.

• Scrolls were then shown to the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem.

• April 11, 1948 discovery was announced.

• 1952 thirty fragments were found in Cave 2, a copper scroll in Cave 3, some 15,000 fragments of 600 manuscripts in Cave 4.

• The Temple Scroll, one of 31 texts found in Cave 11 in 1956, is the longest scroll. Its present total length is about 27 feet.