In 1947, a 14 year old Bedouin (desert nomad) threw a rock into a cave in order to coax out one of his goats. When he went inside, he found parchments. The surprising find generated enormous excitement. Archeologists have focused on two areas: the Qumran community and the surrounding caves. Here are their key findings. The Essenes settlement was compact. Among the ruins are storerooms, a kitchen, a dining room, potters’ workshop, a tower, baths, an aqueduct and ten cisterns like this one. Evidence suggests some of these were built by the Romans. A large cemetery with over one thousand graves was also discovered. To date, over 200 caves have been excavated. The furthest one was five miles away. 40 caves generated some artifacts. A dozen have produced nearly 1,000 manuscripts. Most of these precious parchments were sealed inside of pottery. The oldest documents were written around 200 BC.
