There were two, small blanket-like spreads behind the plastic casing: one had purple, green and orange stripes; the other was green, yellow and blue. The colors were pretty strong – it looked like the blankets had had a bad time of it in someone’s closet for about forty years. Then, reality set in with the museum’s label: the blankets were about 2000 years old. Talk about retro!
While there were clear plastic boxes around many of the 2000-year old artifacts (fossilized fruit, an ancient slingshot, the edge of a white and blue robe), this was nothing compared with the exhibit room for the Dead Sea Scrolls. Flanked by two guards on opposite ends of the chamber, the Scroll room was dim. Bright swatches of lights revealed words inscribed on the walls – translations of the Scroll texts. And there, mounted in burgundy pedestals with golden windows, were the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The ink on the paper was very dark, as thought the words had been burned into the page. The paper was also a deep sienna color, like an ancient newspaper. Distinguishing the writing from the weathered edges of the paper was difficult. But there they were – excerpts from the book of Enoch, an Apocryphal psalm, a scroll on Community Rule, and chapters from the books of Genesis and Leviticus.
These scrolls were first discovered in 1947, when some shepherds explored the caves by Qumran, near the Dead Sea. Professor Eleazar Sukenik of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem was the first to calculate the date of the scrolls. From 1948 – 1956, scientists and Bedouin natives of the region competed to find the most artifacts. Four of the scrolls were offered for sale in a 1954 Wall Street Journal as “an ideal gift to an educational or religious institution.”
Today, the Israel Antiquities Authority has the guardianship of most of the Scrolls. Because of the age and value of the Scrolls, the IAA only allows one display of fragments to be on exhibit at a time. Following each fragment’s time in the display case, it is put to ‘rest’ for a year in a vault in Israel. A courier is sent with each display, riding first class and keeping the fragments in a special suitcase.
According to Kim Ramsden, the Director of Public Relations for the SMM (Science Museum of Minnesota), the IAA only allows the fragments to be displayed in facilities that have excellent preservation techniques. “We are known for how well we take care of our artifacts,” she said, noting that the SMM has “1.75 million objects in our care.”
Six years of planning went into the preparation of this current display. Special display areas were constructed only for this particular exhibit – “It’s not a typical exhibit for the museum,” Ramsden explained. “When you build it from scratch, it takes a few years. This is the most special exhibit we’ve ever hosted.”
