Amazing discoveries came to light nearly every single month in 2017. Take a chronological journey back through 15 of the year’s most intriguing historical events, from archaeological finds and fascinating DNA evidence to newly uncovered documents that change our understanding of ...read more
Masada is an ancient stone fortress in Israel, located high above the Dead Sea on a tall, rocky mesa. Now an Israeli national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the 840-acre complex holds well-preserved ruins attesting to the history of the ancient kingdom of Israel and the ...read more
The second-largest private collection of Dead Sea Scroll fragments, an early copy of the Psalms and interactive exhibits are among the features of the 430,000-square-foot Museum of the Bible that opened its doors to the public in Washington, D.C. on November 17, ...read more
Though Bedouin shepherds first discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls in Khirbet Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, in late 1946 or early 1947, official excavations of the Qumran caves didn’t begin until the 1950s. By that time, looters had already gotten to the caves and ...read more
Though the term “Dead Sea Scrolls” has been applied scrolls found in other caves around the Judean Desert, it is more specifically used to refer to the scrolls first discovered in the caves near the ancient settlement of Qumran between 1947 and 1956. After the teenage shepherds ...read more
1. Lascaux CaveIn September 1940, four French teenagers were roaming the forests near Montignac when their dog began sniffing around a mysterious hole in the ground. After shimmying down a stone shaft, the boys encountered a vast underground cavern whose walls were adorned with ...read more
The first of the Dead Sea Scrolls—also known as the Judean Desert Scrolls—were uncovered in 1947 by a shepherd looking for his stray goat. Among the fragments of ancient papyrus and parchment are some of the world’s oldest copies of Biblical texts, as well as secular documents ...read more
1. Teenage shepherds accidentally stumbled upon the first set of Dead Sea Scrolls. In late 1946 or early 1947, Bedouin teenagers were tending their goats and sheep near the ancient settlement of Qumran, located on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in what is now known as the ...read more