About   The Building   Permanent Exhibition:   Scrolls on Display   A Day at Qumran   The Aleppo Codex   Bar-Kokhba   Scientific Activities   Education   Prepare for your Visit The dead Sea Scrolls   Introduction   The Discovery   The Historical Context   Research and Publications   Restoration   Exhibitions throughout the World   Bibliography   Related Links   Frequently Asked Questions The Discovery of the Scrolls The first seven scrolls were discovered by chance by Bedouin in the winter of 1947 in a cave near Khirbet Qumran on the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea. Three of the scrolls were immediately purchased by archaeologist E. L. Sukenik, while the remaining four were smuggled to the United States. It was only in 1954 that archaeologist Yigael Yadin, son of Prof. Sukenik, managed to return the remaining scrolls to Israel. In honor of these seven scrolls, the Shrine of the Book was constructed. Additional scrolls and scroll fragments were discovered in caves in the vicinity of Qumran between 1949 and 1956; they were found both by Bedouin and by archaeologists from ?cole Biblique and the Palestine Archaeological Museum, under the direction of Father R. De Vaux, who also excavated the site. Since 1956, sporadic excavations have been conducted in and around Qumran, but no other scrolls have come to light. Today, most of the scrolls are in Israel (at either the Shrine of the Book or the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum), though a few scrolls and scroll fragments are housed elsewhere, mainly in Jordan.
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