Fascinating Fasteners
The Dead Sea Scrolls were bound and secured by leather thongs and tabs, hundreds of which have been discovered in Qumran Cave 8. The discovery of unattached tabs and thongs suggests the production of scrolls at Qumran, further countering the notion that the caves served as a library for only outside texts. The slotted tab would have been attached to the edge of a scroll, such as on the Prayer for King Jonathan manuscript (4Q448), which was discovered with the leather tab and thong still attached. The thong would have been inserted in the slot within the tab and wound around the rolled-up scroll.
