Dead Sea Scrolls (Cave 4 collection)

The largest cache of ancient biblical manuscripts ever found/Archaeology & Antiquities

Cave 4 at Qumran near the Dead Sea yielded the largest collection of Dead Sea Scrolls when discovered in 1952. It contained fragments from over 15,000 pieces representing about 575 manuscripts, including biblical texts, community rules, and commentaries dating from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD. The scrolls were written mostly on parchment and papyrus in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Cave 4 alone held roughly 75% of all scrolls found across the 11 Qumran caves. These manuscripts predate the oldest previously known Hebrew Bible texts by nearly a thousand years.