Dead Sea Scrolls After WWII Worksheet for 12-Year-Olds: History, Religion, and English

Instructions

1. Read the Narrative: Carefully read "The Treasure in the Cliffs" to understand how the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and why they shook the world of history and religion.
2. Investigate the Vocabulary: Use context clues from the reading to define the key terms in Section 1.
3. Map the Timeline: Order the historical events of the discovery chronologically in Section 2.
4. Analyze the Artifacts: Complete the archaeological matrix in Section 3 using clues from the text and your own deductions.
5. Translate the Past: Complete the literary analysis in Section 4 to see how ancient scribes wrote.
6. Create Your Own Legacy: Complete the Time Capsule challenge in Section 5.

The Treasure in the Cliffs

In the winter of 1947, as the world was recovering from the devastation of World War II, a young Bedouin shepherd named Muhammad edh-Dhib was searching the rugged, desert cliffs of Qumran near the Dead Sea. One of his goats had strayed high up into the rocks. Scanning the limestone cliffs, Muhammad spotted a small, circular opening leading into a dark cave.

Hoping his goat might have wandered inside, or perhaps looking for hidden treasure, he tossed a stone into the opening. Instead of a bleating goat, he heard the sharp clink of shattering pottery.

Squeezing inside the narrow cave, Muhammad did not find gold or jewels. Instead, he found several tall clay jars. Inside them were rolls of ancient leather and papyrus wrapped in decaying linen. These were the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Over the next decade, archaeologists and local Bedouins searched eleven caves in the area, uncovering tens of thousands of scroll fragments belonging to over 900 different manuscripts. Written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE, these texts were hidden by a Jewish sect called the Essenes just before Roman soldiers destroyed their community in 68 CE.

For historians and religious scholars, this was the ultimate time capsule. It pushed back the oldest known manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) by over one thousand years, proving that these ancient religious texts had been preserved with incredible accuracy across the centuries.

Section 1: Vocabulary Detective

Using clues from the reading passage, match the bolded vocabulary word on the left with its correct definition on the right by writing the correct letter in the space provided.

1. Bedouin __           A. An ancient writing material made from the processed skin of sheep or goats.
2. Sect __                 B. A religious or political group with beliefs that differ from the larger group.
3. Manuscript __     C. A nomadic, desert-dwelling Arab person.
4. Parchment __       D. A document, book, or piece of music written completely by hand.

Section 2: Chronological Order

Number the following historical events from 1 to 5 in the order they occurred.

• __ A young Bedouin shepherd throws a stone into a dark cave while looking for a lost goat.
• __ Roman soldiers march on the Qumran community, causing the Essenes to hide their library.
• __ World War II ends, shifting global boundaries and paving the way for partition in the Middle East.
• __ Scholars and archaeologists systematically search 11 caves, finding over 900 unique manuscripts.
• __ The Essene scribes painstakingly copy biblical, sectarian, and community rules onto leather scrolls.

Section 3: Analyzing the Artifacts

Archaeologists categorize the scrolls into three major groups: Biblical (books from the Hebrew Bible), Apocryphal (religious texts not included in the standard Bible), and Sectarian (the specific rules, calendars, and beliefs of the Qumran community).

Complete the archaeological chart below. Row 1 has been completed as an example.