The custodian's own account: a young Bedouin shepherd's find in 1947, ten more caves over nine years, remains of over 900 manuscripts, slow publication by a small team, and most official editions published by 2001.

What the scrolls contain: about 230 biblical manuscripts and many non-biblical texts, a quarter of them 'sectarian'; mostly Hebrew, about 15% Aramaic, several Greek; dated from the third century BCE to the first century CE.

“While Hebrew is the most frequently used language in the Scrolls, about 15% were written in Aramaic and several in Greek.” source

The exhibition's section on the modern story: accidental discovery by Bedouin shepherds in 1947, the access dispute of the late 1980s, the 1991 photographic edition and the Huntington Library's release, and the widening of the editorial team.

“no controversy has been more heated than that surrounding access to the scrolls” source

Peer-reviewed radiocarbon measurements of 18 texts and two linen fragments from Qumran Caves 1, 2 and 4 and Nahal Hever; the results agree well with ages estimated from handwriting.

“The radiocarbon results are in good agreement with estimates of age based on paleography.” source

University of Arizona research record; open-access PDF in the University of Arizona repository (hdl.handle.net/10150/653405), which returned HTTP 403 to our tool.

The museum's own account: BAM testing of five fragments (report October 2018), an independent Art Fraud Insights investigation in 2019, and the conclusion that all 16 of its fragments are modern forgeries. Links the full scientific report.

“none of the textual fragments in the Museum of the Bible's Dead Sea Scroll collection are authentic” source

Catalogue record for the best-known ‘suppression’ book (New York: Summit Books, 1991).

“The Dead Sea scrolls deception” source

Internet Archive record; used for publication details only, the book was not read.

Report on the findings: most fakes are on leather, not the tanned parchment of genuine scrolls; concern centres on about 70 fragments that surfaced after 2002; the findings cast no doubt on the roughly 100,000 real fragments.

“These fragments were manipulated with the intent to deceive.” source

The museum bought the 16 fragments from four dealers between 2009 and 2014 and will keep them on display in an exhibit about forgery; scholars praised it for funding and publishing the investigation.

Timeline of the discovery: the first cave was found in winter 1946–47, which is why both years appear in accounts.

“Nov 1946 – Feb 1947 Muhammed edh-Dhib Hassan and at least two other Bedouin discover the first cave and scrolls” source

The Israel Antiquities Authority page gives 1947.