Treasure of the Caves

Iris Noble's retelling of the story of the Dead Sea scrolls for young people is made vivid by concrete details, often seasoned with imagination but always with a scrupulous fidelity to the known facts. The tracking down of the many scrolls, the bidding and bargaining when their value was discovered, and a dramatic sequel in 1967 during the Six-Day War, when Israeli soldiers entered Bethlehem and captured the longest scroll are only one part of a remarkable search into the biblical past. Perhaps even more exciting is the account of the scientific know-how and ingenuity that went into the preservation and preparation of the scrolls before they could be studied. The piecing together of these priceless historical clues and the archaeological detective work that led to the excavation of the ruins of Qumran make another stranger-than-fiction chapter. - Publisher.