More Info
The Dead Sea Scrolls have returned to American shores for the first time in nearly a decade. An exhibition featuring scroll fragments from ancient Israel and pieces of a first-century boat found in the Sea of Galilee opened at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley on Nov. 22, and runs through September 2. The Institute’s favorite archaeologist Patrick Hunt and his wife Pam will be returning home from Simi Valley to tell us all about the exhibit!
Discovered between 1946 and 1956 in the Qumran Caves on the West Bank of Israel, the Dead Sea Scrolls date from third century B.C. to first century A.D. Not only do they include the oldest surviving manuscripts of biblical books (apart from Esther), they reveal details about Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity. “With so much upheaval going on [in the world], particularly in the very place where these artifacts originated, this exhibition offers a tangible connection to a timeframe sacred to both Jewish and Christian faiths,” said Melissa Giller, chief marketing officer at the Reagan Foundation. The location of the exhibit at the foundation is especially appropriate—President Ronald Reagan strongly advocated for Israel during his presidency. Israel and the United States “will always remain at each other’s side,” Reagan once said.
Patrick Hunt believes the perceived boundaries between academic subjects are too often arbitrary and artificial, and thus explores junctions between many intersecting areas of interest across the broader humanities, sciences, and the arts. Patrick has followed several of his life-long dreams—archaeologist, writer, composer, poet, and art historian—for nearly three decades at Stanford University. Among many other works, he is author of When Empires Clash, Pascal & Voltaire at the Cafe Procope, Hannibal, and Ten Discoveries that Rewrote History.
