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David Harris

Where it all began. According to one account, Jum‘a, a Bedouin shepherd of the Ta‘amireh tribe, hoping to find a treasure, liked to spend his spare time exploring the caves in the cliffs along the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. In 1947 he achieved his dream with the discovery of this small entrance to the first of the caves found to contain Dead Sea Scrolls, later designated Cave 1. Most of the scrolls in Cave 1 had been wrapped in cloth and sealed in jars, resulting in good preservation.