Copper roller

The roller of copper is one of the Manuscrits of found Qumrân with Khirbet Qumrân. It differs appreciably from the others which were written on Cuir or papyrus. This one was written on very pure Cuivre, mixed with approximately 1% of tin. The copper roller is exposed to the archaeological museum of Amman in Jordan.

History and origin

The roller was found the March 20th 1952 in cave 3 of Qumrân, the first to be excavated by the archeologists (reference 3Q15). The roller was broken in two parts rolled separately and laid out one on the other against the rock face of the bottom of the cave. Their oxidation did not allow that they are simply unrolled. In 1956, professor H. Wright Baker, College off Technology of Manchester (England), sawed two volumes in plates to obtain 23 curved bands as well as many glares which had been detached during cutting. It was discovered whereas the roller, high of 30 cm, had an overall length of 2,28 meters and a thickness lower than 1 mm and that it had been manufactured with three rivetted copper sheets the ones with the others.

Joseph Milik studied the text divided into 12 columns in Hebrew square and the first translation gave some. The contents were astonishing: contrary to the other manuscripts, it is not a question of a literary work but of a list of 64 places where treasures in Palestine are hidden: Gold and Money counted in thousands of talents, objects pertaining to worship, church vestments, incense and invaluable gasolines with indications of directions or places very precise. However no forever found treasure.

The last lines of the text indicate a hiding-place where a copy of the list was hidden. It undoubtedly found forever because it was written on a skin or papyrus, more fragile than metal. The majority of the masks seem to be located around Qumrân, of Jericho and Jerusalem, some also in the valley of Cédron and the three last in Samarie.

In 1993, the roller was entrusted to EDF in order to be restored. A certified copy was carried out by Galvanoplastie. A new deciphering made it possible to reduce by 64 to 60 the number of listed hiding-places.

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