Cave Number 4 revealed the greatest cache of discoveries. A total of 16,000 document fragments were unearthed. Piecing this large, ancient jigsaw puzzle together required 45 years of painstaking work. The delicate remnants eventually formed 530 scrolls. Collectively, the Dead Sea Scrolls are the earliest version of the Hebrew Bible. They predate a previous one by more than a millennium. Included are all of the books of the Old Testament except for Esther. The scrolls are maintained by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem along with artifacts from Masada.
