The Dead Sea Scrolls...

[fajrdrako]

I went to see the Dead Sea Scrolls today, at the Museum of Civilization.

Most of the exhibit is a collection of artifacts from ancient Judea, of various types. There are only three sections of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and they are in a tiny room that is cordoned off so not many people can see it at once, and you get a brief period of red light on the scrolls and then twenty seconds of darkness.

They are still incredibly cool. Fascinating to see.

The history was interesting too, though there wasn't a lot I didn't know. A few other interesting items were a tiny amulet of rolled silver; a small pomegranate carved in stone the fit at the end of a sceptre for religious ritual; little statues of pagan gods that belonged to Jewish citizens; and a copy of a Vulgate Bible from Nuremberg from 1469 A.D. That last was mostly exciting because I could read it. Sometimes we had trouble figuring out what script or language some of the writing on some of the artifacts was in, but the one that gave us most trouble turned out to be in ancient Phoenician.

There was a northern Kingdom of Judea. I never knew.