Thursday, March 28, 2024 -
Print Edition

Dead Sea Scrolls rotated

closing time at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science on June 5. Volunteers exiting out of the service entrance deposit their keys and head home with the public — but I’m staying. I’m about to witness the “changing of the scrolls” halfway through DMNS’ hugely popular “Dead Sea Scrolls” exhibition, which opened in March. Tonight, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and museum staffers begin replacing the first set of scrolls (Rotation I) with Rotation II, in accordance with strict conservation techniques. There is no portrait in the Louvre or abstract painting at MoMA that rivals the Dead Sea Scrolls, found by three Bedouins in Qumran in 1947. Written between 150 BCE and 70 CE, the fragile parchments — some tinier than the tip of […]
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IJN Senior Writer | [email protected]