All language subtitles for Lost.Treasures.of.the.Bible.Secrets.of.Faith.S01E02.720p.WEB.H264-SHIIIT_track4_[eng]

[Narrator] In Jerusalem,
a team of archaeologists

unearths mysterious
ancient ruins.

We have this last layer,

and I just got to take
the sledgehammer to it.

[Narrator] As they dig deeper,

they reveal a lost
religious complex.

[Archaeologist] We were
very surprised to find this.

Hold on!
The battle's not over yet.

[Narrator] That could shed light
on one of the greatest

archaeological discoveries
in history--

the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[Archaeologist]
This is very exciting.

[Narrator] While the
archaeologists in the field

uncover the world
of the scrolls,

researchers in the lab
decode the texts.

[Researcher 1] I think
I'm starting to see

something already.

[Researcher 2] That text has
just basically appeared

out of nowhere.

[Narrator]
Using new technologies

to unravel their
ancient mysteries.

[Researcher 1] That’s amazing!

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[Narrator] The stories
in the Bible

are famous across the world.

They tell of great battles
between good and evil,

earth-shaking catastrophes

and epic heroes.

Now new archaeological
discoveries

buried in the Middle East
for thousands of years

shed light on how these stories
survived to the modern day.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are
among the most important

religious manuscripts
ever found.

[Joan Taylor]
The Dead Sea Scrolls were really

the major discovery
of the 20th century.

They capture
the public imagination

because they are mysterious.

[Narrator] Discovered in
desert caves in the late 1940s,

they include some of the oldest
known copies of books

from the Old Testament.

Today, archaeologists
and scientists investigate

how they came to be
hidden in the caves

and what the scrolls
themselves can reveal

about the people who hid them.

13 miles east of Jerusalem,
on the shores of the Dead Sea,

lies the desert site of Qumran.

Archaeologist Danny Herman
investigates here.

[Danny Herman] This is
a very rugged landscape

where between the western shores
of the Dead Sea

and the cliffs
of the Judaean Desert,

this is definitely
a place with mysticism.

[Narrator] The limestone cliffs
which dominate this landscape

are dotted with mysterious
cave openings.

[Danny]
In the winter of 1946, 1947,

two Bedouins were
searching this area,

maybe looking for a lost goat,

and in what would later be
labeled as cave number one,

that's where they find perhaps

the grandest archaeological
discovery ever made

in the Holy Land.

[Narrator] As the story goes,
one of the Bedouins

threw a stone into the cave to
scare the goat out of hiding.

But instead he heard the sound
of something breaking.

[pottery shatters]

When he entered the cave,
he found seven large clay jars

wrapped in linen
and sealed with lids.

Inside them were
blackened parchments.

Some were still full scrolls,

while others had broken down
into fragments.

They were a series
of ancient manuscripts

including the earliest copies

of Old Testament texts
ever found,

along with other ancient
religious writings.

[Danny] Nothing compares
to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Hundreds of manuscripts,

including copies
of the Old Testament,

in caves by the western shores
of the Dead Sea.

[Narrator]
Since the initial discovery,

the remains of around
950 scrolls

have been found in 11 caves.

But none of them state
who their owners were.

[Danny] There is still
a lot that can be learnt

from the scrolls,

even the most basic questions
about who wrote them,

when did he hide them, and why?

It’s just one big mystery.

[Narrator] The process
of decoding how the scrolls

ended up in the caves
begins in Jerusalem

where today most are kept.

Archaeologist
Joe Uziel oversees

the Dead Sea Scrolls unit

of the Israel
Antiquities Authority.

The survival of these fragile
texts to the modern day

is one of the great marvels
of archaeology.

[Joe Uziel] The climate
of the desert and the protection

of the caves allowed them
to survive.

And we have to make sure
that we can pass this on

to our next generation

and they can continue
to care for the scrolls.

[Narrator] Joe wants to know
what the scrolls can reveal

about the people who hid them.

The problem is that some texts
have weathered their stay

in the desert
better than others.

[Joe] The scroll of the
Book of Psalms from cave four

was discovered in 1952.

You can see a lot of the damage
here on the scroll,

the wrinkling,
the holes that were created

by worms eating through
the leather of the scroll.

[Narrator] Joe and his team
must first attempt

to undo this damage
and stabilize the scrolls

before they can uncover
the secrets within them.

[Joe] It begins with a very,
very, very careful examination

in order to document

the different types of damage
on the scroll.

[Narrator] After this
initial examination,

the team decides what steps are
needed to preserve the scroll.

[Joe] It could be that the
scroll needs to be strengthened

where there are cracks or holes.

A lot of what we do has to do
with caring for the scrolls

in very, very strict parameters

of temperature, humidity,
exposure to light.

[Narrator] By preserving the
scrolls in this meticulous way,

Joe and his team keep them
available to scholars.

As new research
techniques emerge,

they could find new insights
into the manuscripts

that would previously
have been impossible.

[Joe] Today with the development
of new scientific technologies,

I not only gain
important knowledge

about how to conserve
the scrolls,

but I can also gain a lot
of knowledge about the scrolls

in terms of how they
were prepared,

how they were written,

and maybe even sometimes
who was writing them.

[Narrator] The identity of who
hid the scrolls and why

might be a mystery, but
radiocarbon dating tests reveal

that most of the scrolls
date to around 2,000 years ago.

This was a pivotal time
in Jewish history

when the Roman Empire ruled
over the region of Judaea

where many Jewish people lived.

At a site called Ophel Hill
in Jerusalem,

experts investigate
Roman period remains

that could shed light on the
world the scrolls came from.

Orit Peleg-Barkat and
Uzi Leibner lead the dig.

[Orit Peleg-Barkat] So, for me
it's like my second home.

Not everyone can excavate
in such a place

where so much history
is embedded

in each and every stone.

Revealing something that was
hidden for so many years,

suddenly it rises
out of the ground,

and it’s a great adventure.

[Narrator] 2,000 years ago,

Jerusalem was one
of the biggest cities

in the Roman province
of Judaea.

Ophel Hill was a busy area

right at the foot
of the temple,

the city’s religious heart.

[Uzi Leibner] Whoever came from
the city had to climb up

through the Ophel in order
to reach the Temple Mount.

[Narrator] The Temple in
Jerusalem was not just a place

for Jews to gather and pray,

it was considered to be
the House of God.

[Uzi] The Jews of the ancient
times had only one god

who had only one temple, so
obviously this is a focal point,

the quantities of finds here
are nothing similar

to any other site
I have ever excavated.

[Narrator] Through their
excavations here,

Uzi and Orit are trying to
reconstruct the religious world

at the time the Dead Sea
Scrolls were being written.

But this area has been built
over repeatedly since then.

The team must attempt
to differentiate

between the many different
time periods

represented in this
one location.

As they descend
through the layers,

they look out for small finds
buried in the dirt.

[Uzi] I thought I got something,
but I can’t pick it up again.

[Narrator] Uzi uses a metal
detector to locate objects

that aren’t immediately visible
to the naked eye.

[Uzi] A metal object, okay.

So just give it to Nadav

and tell him to put it
on the plan, please.

These coins are made of bronze,
they're not cleaned yet,

so we cannot say for sure
what coin is it

and exactly from what period.

[Narrator] The exact date
written on the coins

isn’t visible.

But the team finds them
in a layer

dating to around
2,000 years ago.

These coins may have been used

at the time the Dead Sea
Scrolls were being written.

[Uzi] Up to now, we have from
the four seasons of excavations

about 1,000 coins.

[Narrator] One coin from
the late first century CE

is of particular
interest to Uzi.

[Uzi] These are very, very rare.
It's a silver coin.

These coins were used as coins
for the annual tax

the Jews paid to the temple.

[Narrator] Although the Romans
ruled over Judaea,

they allowed the temple
authorities

to collect their own tax
from the Jewish people.

Many Jews would come to the
area around the Temple Mount

before paying it.

[Uzi] People coming up to
the Temple needed to fulfill

their needs exchanging money in
order to give their half shekel

which has to be given
with a specific type of coin.

[Narrator]
Around the Temple site,

enterprising Judaeans
would charge a fee

to exchange other coins
for the silver half shekel

needed to pay the tax.

[Uzi] The temple attracted
large sums of money.

We know, not just
from the Gospels,

that some people opposed
this role of the Temple

as a commercial place, seeing it
somehow as defiling the Temple.

[Narrator] Roman writers
describe how the debate

over the role of the Temple

caused a great fracture
in the Jewish world.

[Uzi] The most detailed
description appears

in the writings
of Josephus Flavius,

who writes about
the Jewish society,

and he explains that the society
is divided into different sects.

So, the Phariseeans, which
seem to be the largest,

the Sadduceeans,
who are a priestly sect,

and the Essenes, who seem
to be probably the smallest

and maybe somewhat
a marginal sect.

[Narrator] The most
outspoken critics

of the way the Temple was run

belonged to this small sect
known as the Essenes.

Some Essenes turned their back
on Jerusalem altogether

and went to live
in remote communities.

[Uzi] Josephus tells us
that there are Essenes

in each and every city,

but we know they had
some sort of a center

that’s in the desert.

[Narrator] A tantalizing clue
comes in the writings

of another Roman historian,
Pliny the Elder.

He writes that the Essenes'
center was located

on the western coast
of the Dead Sea,

the region where
the scrolls were found.

Who were this group?
And did they hide the scrolls?

[Narrator] Danny Herman
is in Qumran

exploring for possible evidence

of an ancient religious sect
known as the Essenes.

According to ancient writers,

they were a highly devout
branch of Judaism

who chose to live
a simple existence.

One community lived
near the Dead Sea.

[Danny] This is a very remote
part of the Holy Land,

a very difficult area
to live in,

it’s very hot, it’s very dry.

[Narrator] Not far from
the caves where the scrolls

were found are the remains
of an ancient settlement.

[Danny] All of the scrolls
were found in 11 caves

revolving around this site.

There’s a lot of questions
about this enigmatic location.

[Narrator] Many experts
believe it could be

where the people who hid
the scrolls lived.

But who they were is a mystery.

[Danny] You don't have
a spring at this site,

there's not much protection
on the slope,

there are no significant
trade routes passing by.

It seems that the people
who settled this

wanted to be in an isolated area
more than anything else.

[Narrator] The isolation
of the site seems to match

the description
of the hermit-like Essenes.

Just outside the settlement,
Danny locates unusual clues

about the people
who lived here.

[Danny] We are on the eastern
flank of ancient Qumran,

this area is characterized

by hundreds of markers
on the surface.

[Narrator] There are around
1,200 stone markers

dotted across this area.

Beneath the piles of stones,

in pits up to six feet deep,

archaeologists have unearthed
around 50 skeletons,

buried with striking
uniformity--

laid on their backs with
their hands on their hips...

...and their heads
pointing south.

With few grave goods,

these are austere burials.

And they are
overwhelmingly male.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Experts estimate
most of the graves

date to the time
of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

They differ markedly

from the typical rock-cut tombs
of the period.

[Danny] It seems to reflect
a big cemetery

of a specific movement; everyone
is buried in the same way.

It is an equal community of men
that apparently lived here.

[Narrator] This ties in well
with ancient descriptions

of the Essenes being
a mostly male sect.

And the closeness of the site
to the caves is intriguing.

Were the Essenes responsible
for hiding the scrolls?

At the John Rylands Library
in Manchester, England,

historian Joan Taylor looks for
clues in the texts themselves.

Our cameras have unique access
as she investigates

what these ancient writings
can reveal

about the people who hid them.

[Joan] There's so little that
we know about this group,

and how to slot them
into a wider history,

understanding of the time,
is difficult.

[Narrator] Only seven scrolls
were found mostly intact,

and there are over 25,000
smaller fragments.

Joan has special access
to 77 fragments

that were gifted
to the library.

[Joan] They're not large size
pages, they're not columns,

they're these little
bits and pieces

that have to be put together.

[Narrator] Piecing them
back together

is a near impossible task;

some of the fragments have
no visible text on them.

[Joan] Sometimes ink gets
rubbed off ancient parchment.

You imagine these pieces
were sitting in a cave

for 2,000 years, all sorts
of things can happen.

[Narrator] Joan takes one of
the samples to be investigated

by Jamie Robinson

at the institute’s
specialist imaging lab.

[Jamie Robinson]
That does look quite blank,

but let’s see what
we can find out.

[Joan] Okay, great.

[Narrator] She hopes their
highly sensitive

imaging technology,

which has only become widely
available in recent years,

could reveal new information
about the fragments.

[Jamie] Okay, so the fragment
is under the camera,

the system's been calibrated

so I’m gonna start
the capture sequence now.

[Narrator] Jamie uses
a 100 million-pixel camera

to capture
ultra-high-resolution

photographs of the fragment

under different
wave lengths of light.

[Jamie] We use a system called
multispectral imaging,

and that can often
show us things

that you can’t see
with the naked eye.

Okay, so the system's ran
through all of the wavelengths

of light, we’ve got the results.

But as we go through this
sequence of illuminations,

we're starting in the UV here,

and you can see that
it's just black,

so we’re not seeing anything.

[Narrator] Each wavelength
of light is a different color

and shows up different features
on the fragment.

[Jamie] We’re getting
to the infrared now.

[Narrator] The images taken
under infrared light

reveal something unexpected.

[Jamie] So you can see...

[Joan] I think I’m starting
to see something.

[Narrator] Ink.

[Joan] That’s amazing!

[Jamie] That text has just
basically appeared

out of nowhere.

[Narrator] This ancient Hebrew
writing has gone unseen

for around 2,000 years.

[Joan] So what I can see there
is a shin, a bet, and a tav,

and that’s the word Shabbat,
so, the Sabbath.

[Narrator] New pieces of
evidence like this could help

shed light on the people
of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[Joan] Shabbat is so intriguing
of all the words to be revealed.

It’s just where does
this text come from?

It could be from scripture,
but it could actually be

from one of the so-called

Sectarian pieces of text
as well.

[Narrator] The Sectarian Scrolls
are a group of texts

describing the rules of
a particular Jewish community.

Joan thinks a Sectarian Scroll
called the Community Rule

could help identify
who the group were.

[Joan] This particular scroll
is very, very interesting

in terms of representing
something about the group

that hid the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[Narrator] The scroll details
the rules governing

this group’s way of life.

[Joan] They seem to be separated
from the rest of Israel

in some way.

It talks about how you have
to be exceptionally pure

in order to be
part of this group

that were aiming for a
particular standard of holiness.

[Narrator] The scrolls'
strict religious edicts

align with the picture
of the Essenes

provided by ancient historians.

Based on the archaeological
evidence at Qumran

and the writings
in the scrolls themselves,

Joan believes the Essenes were
the people who hid the scrolls.

So who were they?

Can archaeology reveal more
about the Essene way of life?

[Narrator] Danny Herman explores
Qumran for clues

that may link the site
to the Essenes

and reveal what life was like
in this period.

Among the ruins are a series
of mysterious structures.

[Danny] This is one of 10
similar installations.

Some of these were dug
into the ground,

some of them were formed by
building walls around them.

[Narrator]
Their design holds a clue

about what they were used for.

[Danny] They all have
the same features;

they're deep and they have steps
leading into them.

But the fact that
they all have plaster

indicates that they were
for storing water.

[Narrator] Qumran lies in
an arid desert-like region,

so reservoirs like this
were important structures.

But why would this tiny
settlement need 10 reservoirs

for storing water?

The excavations at Ophel Hill

could shed light
on this mystery.

As they dig deeper, Orit and
the team are uncovering remains

from the Roman period
all over the site.

In one area,
they discover a structure

sunken into the ground.

[Orit] We were very surprised
to find this.

It's an underground
installation,

so we need to imagine

that we are in the basement
of the structure.

[Narrator] It's remarkably
similar to the structures

seen at Qumran.

What was its purpose?

[Worker] Some of this is gonna
take a while to clean up.

As you can see,
there’s a lot of loose stones.

[Narrator] The structure was
backfilled with heavy rocks

in ancient times, so the team
must break up and remove

the rocks inside before
they can get a closer look.

[Worker]
We have this last layer,

and I just gotta take
the sledgehammer to it.

[Orit] You’ve done
an amazing job here.

[Narrator] With the bulk
of the debris cleared,

Orit can now see the features

of this installation
more closely.

[Orit] This is very exciting.

The stairs are cut from bedrock

and everything is covered
by a thick layer of plaster.

[Narrator] The plaster is
similar to that found

lining the reservoirs
at Qumran.

Orit believes this structure
was for more

than just storing water.

[Orit]
We go down using the stairs

to submerge yourself fully.

These were meant for bathing.

[Narrator] The construction
quality and size of this bath

makes Orit think it must have
been expensive to build.

[Orit] It could be like in
a dwelling of a rich person,

but we find it
very hard to believe

that this is a residential area.

Since this is a public area, we
think that it was built to serve

the thousands of pilgrims
who came here,

and this is why it is so large.

[Narrator] Public bathing was
popular in the Roman period,

but the closeness of these
baths to the Temple

suggests they had
a religious purpose.

Orit believes it relates

to the ancient Jewish
concept of purity.

Jews in this period believed
that being in proximity

to death and decay
caused them to become impure.

In order to enter the Temple,
worshippers were required

to wash off these
so-called impurities.

[Orit] They needed something
to differentiate

the normal hygiene process
of becoming clean,

and the ritualistic, religious
practice of becoming pure.

So they developed
this installation

with a stepped basin for
ritualistic purification.

[Narrator] The structure is
a ritual bath,

one of around 100
found at Ophel Hill.

It provides a hint as to what
this area was used for.

With the sacred Temple
at its heart,

the Temple Mount was built
to host pilgrims

from all over the Jewish world.

Its southern wall had
two sets of huge gates

that formed the main
entrance to the complex.

A massive stone staircase
led up to these gates

taking hundreds of pilgrims
into the Temple.

♪ ♪

At the foot of the Mount
was Ophel Hill,

an area filled with ritual
baths where pilgrims could come

to purify themselves before
worshipping at the Temple.

Ritual bathing was a key tenet
of ancient Judaism.

It required deep, plastered
baths like the ones at Qumran.

[Orit] In Qumran, we have one
of the largest concentration

of ritual bath at a site
that is outside of Jerusalem.

We can characterize Qumran
I think as a site

where purity played
a very important role.

[Narrator] These finds help
experts to build a picture

of the events that may have led
the Essenes to Qumran.

In the 2nd century BCE,
the Essene movement emerged

in Jerusalem,
devoted to rigorous purity

and daily ritual baths.

Denouncing the priesthood
as corrupt,

some Essenes
abandoned Jerusalem

and retreated
to the wilderness.

Many experts believe they built
a secluded settlement

at Qumran, complete
with workshops,

dining hall, and a watchtower.

Here in splendid isolation,

they continued
their strict rituals

including frequent immersion
in ritual baths.

♪ ♪

The Essenes were a pious group

with uncompromising rules
about worship and purity.

This could explain why
they kept scrolls

filled with scripture
and religious treatise.

But did they actually write
the Dead Sea Scrolls?

[Narrator] Researchers across
the globe have been working

for decades to identify
the people

who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls.

At the University of Groningen
in the Netherlands,

a team led by Mladen Popovic
applies cutting-edge technology

to investigate
the scrolls’ origins.

Mladen thinks that precisely
dating all of the scrolls

is the key to understanding
whether the Essenes wrote them.

[Mladen Popovic] The key
questions of the projects--

when were these manuscripts
written and who wrote them?

[Narrator] The Essenes emerged
in the 2nd century BCE.

If they did write all of the
scrolls, the dating should show

that they were all written
after that time.

But laboratory
dating techniques

like radiocarbon dating
require damaging the material.

They cannot be used on all
of the priceless scrolls.

[Mladen] We have to be really
careful with the scrolls.

These are the oldest documents
of the Hebrew Bible,

or the Old Testament.

It’s extremely precious
material, and it’s tangible.

[Narrator]
So Mladen is pioneering

a new dating technique,

which harnesses the power
of artificial intelligence.

He and his team have developed
an AI model called Enoch

which can date scrolls based on
the handwriting of the text.

[Mladen] What Enoch has learnt
to do is associate

a certain style of writing
with a certain time period,

and that it can also apply to
many, many other manuscripts

that it has not seen before.

[Narrator] Human experts have
been dating manuscripts

based on their handwriting
for centuries,

but this new AI model
supercharges the technique.

[Mladen] Once it is trained,
it's able to look at things

much quicker than we do,

at much more data
than we are able to do.

[Narrator] Mladen works with
AI expert Maruf Dhali

on the project.

[Maruf Dhali] We have trained
the Enoch model,

and the model is now optimized,
so for any new document now

it takes less than two minutes'
time to make a new prediction.

This has never been done before;
that’s the beauty of it.

[Mladen] Now we're looking at
particular manuscripts 4Q109

of Ecclesiastes, the Book of
Ecclesiastes, the Old Testament.

[Narrator] Human handwriting
analysts have previously dated

this scroll to between
175 and 150 BCE.

Mladen and Maruf want to know
if this estimate holds up.

The Enoch model produces
a result in minutes.

[Maruf] This is a plot
of all the raw numbers.

So just by seeing this plot, I
would say that it is more likely

that this manuscript is written
from 300 to 250 BCE.

[Narrator] According
to the AI model,

this scroll is about 100 years
older than previously thought.

The team has found
a similar pattern

with some other scrolls, too.

[Mladen] Many of the texts that
we initially or traditionally

thought would be around
the 1st century BCE,

maybe 2nd century BCE,
turn out to be much older.

These texts predate the site of
Qumran, older than all our ideas

about when the Essenes
came about.

[Narrator] The results suggest
that the Essenes

may not have written
these scrolls.

And who did remains a mystery.

[Mladen] It’s a new frontier
that we have to explore.

[Narrator] Whilst some scrolls
may have been produced

by Essene scribes

writing in a dedicated
scriptorium space at Qumran,

others might have been
historic artifacts

when they were transported
to the site,

and placed in the caves
for safekeeping.

If the Essenes were the owners
of these older scrolls,

it seems they may have
treasured them so dearly

that they wanted to
protect them from harm.

[Joan] The Essenes were
very, very concerned

with the writings
of the ancients.

In these writings,
you get the word of God,

the name of God written out.

There is so much sanctity
connected with the name of God,

so it was a respectful burial
of these scrolls

in these caves around Qumran.

[Narrator] But what threat did
the Essenes feel they needed

to hide the scrolls from?

Back at the lab in Jerusalem,

Joe Uziel is examining
one of the scrolls.

He believes it could
provide a clue

about why they were abandoned.

[Joe] Here we have one copy
of the Book of Isaiah.

We see a larger fragment
that is composed

of several different
fragments put together.

[Narrator] The Book of Isaiah is
in the Bible's Old Testament.

It contains a series
of prophecies

written in poetic verse.

Joe thinks it had
a special significance

to the people
of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[Joe] 21 copies of Isaiah
were found,

one of the most common
texts found.

And it's most likely
that the reason

it was given so much importance
is because of the prophecies

given by Isaiah,
looking towards the future.

[Narrator] Isaiah was a prophet
who lived in Jerusalem

in the 8th century BCE,

his writings are filled with
visions of judgement and hope.

He predicted that God would
bring about the end times,

starting with the fall
of Israel,

followed by Babylon, Egypt,
and their neighbors.

The importance of Isaiah
in the scrolls

may reflect
the group's obsession

with the idea of an imminent
end of days event.

[Joan] They're looking ahead to
a kind of righteous judgement

in the world, where God is
going to act in history

and they’re going
to be vindicated.

[Narrator] One possibility
is that the Essenes

might have been
hiding the scrolls

to protect them from
a coming apocalypse.

If so, what might have
led them to believe

that the end of days was near?

[Narrator] At Ophel Hill
in Jerusalem,

Uzi Leibner and his team
are digging in layers

dating to the period that the
Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden.

Among the many ritual baths
at the site,

they find the remains
of a building.

[Uzi] We’re excavating here
a monumental structure.

The walls we see around us
currently are not the walls

of the ancient building;
this is a later building

that was built on top
and into the early structure.

[Narrator] They think this
structure must have formed

part of the complex
for pilgrims

preparing to enter the Temple

around the time
of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

As they dig deeper,

they find a wealth of artifacts
among the debris.

[Uzi] This is one of dozens
of coins found here.

These bronze coins are
for small transactions,

like daily transactions.

On one side of the coin
we have a goblet

that was used in the Temple.

[Narrator] The coin dates
to the Roman period.

But this is no Roman coin.

The goblet symbol it depicts

is distinctly Jewish.

In the Roman Empire,

minting coins without
a depiction of the emperor

on them was highly unusual.

[Uzi] Judaea is a tiny province
in a huge, huge empire

presenting itself as independent

and not a dependent
of the Roman Empire.

[Narrator] Uzi thinks that
this coin is a window

into a critical period
in Judaea's history

at the time the Essenes
were active.

[Uzi] The sources talk about the
Roman governors coming from Rome

to govern Judaea,
oppressing the people--

high taxation,

social differences
within the Jewish society.

All this built up the tension

which came to a bursting point
at the year 66

with the great revolt.

[Narrator] In 66 CE,
Jewish rebels rose up.

They declared an independent
Jewish state

and seized control
of Jerusalem.

To crush the rebellion,

the Romans sent tens of
thousands of troops to Judaea,

burning a path of destruction

that in 68 CE led them
to the Judaean desert.

This may have been
a pivotal moment

in the story
of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[Danny] Romans are advancing and
are crushing Jewish resistance

wherever they meet.

We also know from Josephus
that the 10th legion,

after the conquests of
the north, pass by Jericho.

[Narrator] The city of Jericho

lies just eight miles
from Qumran.

In 68 CE, the Romans
captured Jericho.

[Danny] You cannot see directly
Jericho from here,

but if Jericho burns,
you will see the smoke here.

The people who lived here
heard of the rumor

that the Romans are coming,

and when they saw the smoke
from Jericho,

they realized, we are next.

♪ ♪

[Narrator] As the Romans
rampaged through the region

destroying every settlement
in their path,

they approached Qumran.

Many experts believe
it was at this moment

that the Essenes hid their
precious writings in the caves

to protect them
from the Roman onslaught.

[Danny]
They had enough time to hide

their most valuable belongings,
their scriptures,

and run for their lives.

[Narrator] Investigators digging
at Qumran find a sudden change

in the archaeology at the site
around the year 68 CE,

the same year the Roman
10th legion laid waste

to Jewish settlements
throughout the region.

[Danny] There was definitely
a destruction

of the Jewish presence
and then Roman presence over it.

We don't know if there
was even a battle.

It seems that by the time
the Romans arrived here,

the local population,

the people of the Dead Sea
Scrolls were already gone.

[Narrator] The Romans
seized Qumran.

But they never found
the scrolls.

♪ ♪

In the sanctuary of the caves,
the scrolls remained safe,

until they were rediscovered
nearly 2,000 years later.

But if the Essenes left the
scrolls there to protect them,

why didn't they return
to rescue them

after the danger had passed?

[Narrator] At the site
of Ophel Hill in Jerusalem...

[Archaeologist]
How deep is that there?

[Uzi] It’s between
the stones, I think.

[Narrator] Uzi Leibner and
his team continue to excavate

a monumental structure.

This building dates back
to the Roman period,

shortly after
the Dead Sea Scrolls

are thought to
have been hidden.

[Uzi] Gradually we're descending
through the later building

and reaching down to the stairs

down there beneath
these high standing walls.

[Narrator] When they dig down
to the staircase,

they make a shocking discovery.

[Uzi] You can see here
the beautiful ashlar stones,

they’re just laying on
the stairs all in a collapse.

And in this collapse is
lots of pottery vessels,

lots of stone vessels
and dozens of coins.

But what we had here were ashes,

we were actually
digging in ashes.

[Narrator] This blackened ash
suggests a ferocious fire

tore through this building at
the foot of the sacred temple.

And this catastrophic collapse
could hold more clues.

[Uzi] We have like
this capsule of time

that was caught
of the destruction,

which is tragic,
but for us archaeologists,

it’s very important in order
to date and reconstruct.

[Narrator] The coins found
among the debris

help Uzi to date
the destruction.

[Uzi] The latest coins
we had here on the floors

are coins the year 69, 70 CE.

[Narrator] In the year 70 CE,

two years after
the destruction of Qumran,

the Romans laid siege
to Jerusalem

and burned down
the Holy Temple.

For ancient Jews,
the Holy Temple in Jerusalem

had been a place uniquely
connected with God.

[Uzi] For nearly 1,000 years,
the Jews worshipped their god

in the Temple,
and one bright morning

in the summer of year 70,

all this raises
to the sky in flames,

and the Jews lose their way
of connecting to God.

[Narrator] The destruction
layers are not limited

to the area around the Temple.

[Uzi] Wherever excavations
were carried out,

dramatic evidence of destruction
were found all over the city.

[Narrator] Jerusalem was
completely destroyed

in the Roman assault.

The attack scarred the Jewish
people for generations.

[Uzi] The destruction is seen
by the Jews of that era

as an apocalyptic event,
maybe the end of days.

[Narrator] The Romans
finally suppressed

the first Jewish-Roman war
in 73 CE

with the siege of the rebel
fortress at Masada.

After the war,
historians have no record

of the Essenes at all.

Some experts believe the
Essenes were among the rebels

who died at Masada.

[Danny] But one thing is for
sure, they did not come back,

'cause the scrolls were left
behind, and they didn't survive

the teeth of time, because
that movement died out.

[Narrator] But this
enigmatic group lives on

in their deep association
with the Dead Sea Scrolls.

This season, the team digging
at Ophel Hill has unearthed

the buildings that once stood
in the Temple’s shadow.

[Uzi] Working in the field,

seeing the things coming
out of the ground,

how they’re discovered,
is very exciting.

[Narrator] These 2,000-year-old
ruins shed new light

on a mysterious Jewish sect

and help to resurrect the world
of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[Joe] We're only
at the beginning

of this type of research,

and constantly new avenues
of research are being added.

And with the scrolls,

each and every word has
something else to teach us.

[Orit] It's a treasure of
information and knowledge.

Clearly scholars will write
about these scrolls

for many centuries to come.

[Narrator] Archaeologists
continue to use

revolutionary technology
to decode the origins

of these incredible artifacts.

[Mladen] We've opened
the door onto history

by the modern techniques
that we're using.

It’s enabling us
to ask new questions.

[Narrator] These priceless
treasures remain

an unparallelled
source of information

on the biblical period.

[Joan] This was something that
gives you a window into the time

in which these religions
were in formation,

and you get this world
that was otherwise unknown.

[Narrator] The Dead Sea Scrolls
are only just beginning

to surrender their secrets.