Discovered by a Bedouin shepherd in caves near Qumran between 1947 and 1956, the Dead Sea Scrolls are one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century. They consist of roughly 900 documents, including fragments from every book of the Hebrew Bible (except Esther), as well as sectarian texts and apocryphal works. Dated between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE, they are about 1,000 years older than the previous oldest known Hebrew biblical manuscripts. The scrolls provide invaluable insight into the diversity of Jewish religious thought during the Second Temple period and the historical context out of which Christianity emerged. Most of the scrolls are written on parchment and papyrus in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. They were likely hidden in the caves by a Jewish sect known as the Essenes during the First Jewish-Roman War to protect them from the invading Roman legions.