Dead Sea scrolls

Dead Sea Scrolls : were discovered from 1947 to 1956, in caves along the western shore of the Dead Sea. The bulk of the scrolls were found in caves near Qumran, which was once home to a community of scholars identified as Essenes. This group was a Jewish sect known to have existed elsewhere in Israel during the Second Temple period, which includes the time of Jesus. The scrolls comprise mostly of around 800 fragmentary documents, with only some of them remaining nearly or completely intact. It is estimated that around 100,000 fragments have been found in total. Their find has been hailed as one of the single most important discoveries of the twentieth century.