n>At least some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were most likely not manufactured locally but made their way at some later point to the unique community that amassed the library in the Qumran Caves, a project extracting and analyzing the DNA from the parchments has revealed. For decades, scholars have been debating the origin of the extraordinary collection of hundreds of manuscripts collated in the heart of the Judean Desert. The seven-year-long endeavor carried out on about 35 fragments has opened new horizons into a possible solution to the mystery, as well as many other enigmas – including how to piece together fragments which might have belonged to the same scroll. Read Full Article »