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How were the first Dead Sea Scrolls discovered?

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Archaeology Archaeologists mapping their finds at Pachacamac, Peru, an Indigenous town occupied from approximately 200 bce to 1532 ce, when it was sacked by conquistadors under the command of Francisco Pizarro.

The first Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered accidentally in 1947 by a shepherd boy. He found the ancient manuscripts inside a cave located at Khirbat Qumrān, on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea.12

This discovery is considered one of the most significant events in modern archaeology. Following this initial find, subsequent explorations in the region—particularly between the 1950s and mid-1960s—revealed thousands of fragments representing hundreds of original manuscripts across 11 caves near the Qumrān ruins. These documents, which include biblical texts and sectarian writings, have provided invaluable insights into the history of the region, the development of the Hebrew Bible, and the origins of early Christianity and rabbinic Judaism.213