Dead Sea Scrolls

On December 2, 2012 students from my Survey of Art History course and Dr. Clark's Religion course will make a visit to the Cincinnati Museum Center to see the exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scrolls are leather and papyrus documents dating from the classical era, around the first century BCE and the first half of the 1st century CE. They were discovered, in the modern era, in caves of the NW shore of the Dead Sea. We refer to these caves, seen below, as the Qumran Caves. Types of documents found in these caves include copies of the books of the Hebrew Bible; copies of books of the Old Testament Apocrypha; and documents written by an ascetic community. 

View of the Qumran Caves, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947. (2008). In The Bridgeman Art Library Archive. 

Dead Sea Scrolls. (2001). In Encyclopedia of Archaeology: History and Discoveries. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/abcarch/dead_sea_scrolls

This exhibit will be visually stunning, as it features 600 actual archaeologically excavated artifacts plus 10 samples of authentic scrolls.  This is unusual for a traveling exhibition. Most come with 250 to 300 artifacts and replicas.  All 600 are actual pieces from Biblical to the Byzantine period in Israel and many are from recent excavations and on public display for the first time.

Watch this page for another post after the event. And, if you're interested in going, let me know! We're offering NEXUS for up to 4 credits which will include pre-reading and discussion. 
  

PS: If you remember GC alum '12, Jordan -- she'll be working at the Museum Center that day. So, we'll reconnect with a GC alum, history major, and art history/museum studies student during our visit. Yay!