Dead Sea Copper Scroll

Dead Sea Copper Scroll

In the year 1952, during the course of the spectacular find of the Dead Sea Scrolls in a cave near Khirbet Qumran, this exceptional specimen was found: a copper scroll with a register of locations where treasures of gold and silver should be buried and hidden. Nevertheless, solving the riddle and the search for the locations listed proved more complicated than was first thought. Reading the scroll was already a challenge, the porous metal could not simply be unrolled like the other scrolls made of parchment and papyrus. Therefore, copper scroll had to first be cut into individual pieces before it divulged its precious secrets.

A Spectacular Discovery

The famous Dead Sea Scrolls are considered to be “one of the most important archeological finds of the 20th century”. It was Bedouins who first discovered the treasure in a cave near Qumran on the Dead See: mysterious scrolls in clay pots and other hiding places. The countless scrolls and fragments originate from the time of the 3rd century before- to the 1st century after-Christ and contained inter alia biblical texts and additional unique written texts. They are inestimable testimonials to ancient Judaism and are of exceptional significance for the Christian Bible as well.

The Famous Copper Scrolls

Unlike the rest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the so-called Fragment 3Q15 is not comprised of parchment or papyrus, but rather of metal – copper to be precise. This fact lead to its designation as the Copper Scroll. Information about 64 locations is recorded in the scroll, where precious artifacts of gold and silver as well as other historical treasures were hidden. Therefore, the Copper Scroll is actually an ancient treasure map. Something else differentiates the Copper Scroll from the rest of the Dead Sea Scrolls: it is not stored as a single fragment of the bundle in Jerusalem, but rather in Jordan: it has been stored in the newly-opened Jordan Museum in Amman since 2013.