Levantine - Jar and Cover for Manuscript Rolls - Walters 482058 - Side A

Between 1948 and 1956, about 80 intact manuscript rolls and more than 20,000 fragments were discovered in eleven caves at Qumran, near the Dead Sea. Known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, they preserve parts of every book of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), except for Esther, and represent the earliest existing Hebrew versions. Jars such as this one, also found in a cave near Qumran, were used frequently by the ancient Jews to store manuscript rolls of parchment, papyrus, and copper.