IT'S 1947. You're a Bedouin shepherd looking for a missing animal in the wilderness near Jericho. It's possible that you've been looking for a while, and that you're tired. To save a few steps, you throw a stone into a cave instead of struggling through the narrow opening yourself. What you hear is the sound of breaking pottery, not a protesting "Baaa."
Hmmmm. Might be worth checking out ...
Something like this really happened, although there's some debate about the exact year, and the details are shrouded by the mists of time and legend. But one thing is clear: The Bedouin shepherd or shepherds who investigated the cave made the archaeological find of the century—seven scrolls that would be among those immortalized as the Dead Sea Scrolls because they were found near Qumran, an ancient settlement not far from the Dead Sea. Some researchers believe the site housed members of a Jewish sect called the Essenes, but it's not clear that the scrolls were written there or why they were hidden in the caves.
