Dead Sea scrolls exhitbit at The Royal Ontario Museum Essay

Dead Sea scrolls exhitbit at The Royal Ontario Museum - Essay Example The scrolls were preserved in cylindrical pottery jars and they were sealed with a lid of material that was not known. The jars stood approximately 50cm high and they were 25cm around. The Essenes who lived in the area were a "separatist" Jewish sect and they created an "ascetic monastic community" (Duckeck). They saved the scrolls and put them into the caves to hide them and to protect them from harm. Unfortunately an earthquake made the Essenes leave their homes and they never came back to the area so people forgot about the caves. The parchment that the scrolls were written on was very fragile and this is why many of them became fragments instead of the entire scroll (Duckeck). An interesting note is that scholars have had many things to say about the caves and there were many rumors. Some suggest that there may have been something very important in the scrolls because they were hidden and this usually means that something contains information that some would not want known to eve ryone. As Duckeck, states, "The rumors were things like God was an extraterrestrial making genetic experiments with mankind 3000 years ago" (Duckeck). Whether this information is true or not it brings another fascinating opinion to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. The scrolls span a very long time in history. Marilena Berardinelli reported that the scrolls were possibly written between 250 B.C.E. and 68 C.E. by the Essenes were a Jewish sect that lived near Qumran where the scrolls were found. The scrolls only talk about the Old Testament. Most of the ones they found were written in Hebrew but there are several that were written in Aramaic or Greek (Berardinelli). The scrolls were first discovered by Bedouin tribesmen and sold to a cobbler for about $100 at that time. The cobbler took four of the scrolls to the Syriac Orthodox Church in Jerusalem and sold them to Archbishop Athanasius Yeshue Samuel. Today, the archbishop credited with discovering the scrolls. In 1947