The Double Life of the Dead Sea Scrolls © West scientific
Research/Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation/CORBIS The origin and
history of the scrolls found in this type of cave at Qumran
remains a mystery. Since the extraordinary discovery, made
between 1947 and 1956, of the 900-odd Dead Sea Scrolls in 11
caves at Qumran in the West Bank, paleographers,1 religion
historians, and other specialists have tried to determine their
origins. The identity and motivations of the depositors remain a
mystery, but we now know that the scrolls come from two distinct
sources. This adds another piece to a puzzle that contains tens
of thousands of text fragments originating between 300 BC and 70
AD. During their initial discovery, the texts were rapidly
identified by researchers: fragments of the Bible, known
apocryphal texts,2 and texts from the numerous sects which
coexisted with Judaism during a period when there was no unified
form of the religion. “Different types of texts were found in
each cave,” explains Daniel Stoekl Ben Ezra