Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls

The War Scroll, cols. 12-13

One of the original seven scrolls found at Qumran; purchased by Prof. E. L. Sukenik for the Hebrew University in 1948. Photo © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Ardon Bar Hama.

Professor E. L. Sukenik of the Hebrew University, studying the War Scroll (1951)

Source: Hebrew University Archaeology Department, © The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Qumran site: The Scriptorium

Viewed from the Tower. Photo by Elad Vladislovsky for the Orion Center ©.

Qumran cave 4 (southwest of the Qumran site)

Photo by Asher Altshul for the Orion Center ©.

Search the full bibliography

Since the Center began in 1995, it has maintained a weekly online bibliography of the latest in Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship. The Current Bibliography is posted every Monday. The cumulative Online Bibliography now features more than 21,000 entries; we are gradually expanding the database to encompass entries dating from the beginnings of scrolls research. Search the full bibliography!

Take a Virtual Qumran Tour

Orion’s Virtual Qumran features a video tour of the site led by archaeologist Professor Jodi Magness, of the University of North Carolina, as well as information pages on the Scrolls and the people who produced them. TAKE the Tour!

Upcoming Events

“The Burial of Sealed Jars in the Qumran Cemetery: Disposal of Consecrated Property?"

January 18, 2023
Greenfield Scholars’ Seminar

Workshop: Material Reconstruction of the Dead Sea Scrolls

February 6-7, 2023
WORKSHOP 2023 - Apply now!

Workshop: Reading and Interpreting the Book of Daniel

March 22, 2023
WORKSHOP 2023 The 17th International Orion Symposium

(Con)textual Perspectives on the Dead Sea Scrolls

For links to the Symposium recordings, please click here

Remember to check the events page for more upcoming online events

More Orion Center News

Now Published!

Studies in Qumran Law and Thought:, by Joseph M. Baumgarten. Edited by Ruth A. Clements and Daniel R. Schwartz, with an Introduction by Lawrence H. Schiffman. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 138. Leiden: Brill, February 2022. Pesher Habakkuk: A Key to Prophecy from the Dead Sea Scrolls, by Noam Mizrahi. Published in separate Hebrew, English, and Spanish editions. Jerusalem: The Israel Museum and Arta Scritta, 2022.

Meghillot: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls 14 (2019)
Edited by Jonathan Ben-Dov and Menahem Kister; published by Haifa University, The Orion Center/Hebrew University, and the Bialik Institute.
Meghillot-Journal

Scholarships and Internships

Applications are now open for Orion Center Research scholarships. Deadline: September 01, 2022. For application materials, please click here.

The Center also offers the opportunity for students already learning in Jerusalem to volunteer as interns at the Center. For more details, click HERE.

Other Scholarship and Fellowship Opportunities

Dead Sea Scrolls Online

NEW: Congratulations and many thanks to Elisha Qimron on the publication of the second, updated edition of his monumental three volume work, The Qumran Texts Composite Edition, and for graciously sharing it with the Orion community worldwide,

The Israel Museum and the Israel Antiquities Authority have put online searchable digital images of many of the scrolls in their collections. The Cambridge University Library has done the same with its manuscripts of the Damascus Document and the Aramaic Levy Document. Click here to access these collections.

Of special interest

Congratulations to Prof. Fassberg, Chair of our Academic Committee, who has been awarded the prestigious Landau Prize for the Arts and Sciences in the field of Hebrew Bible and Language

Honors and awards