Dead Sea Scrolls headed to Utah

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Dead Sea Scrolls are coming to The Leonardo museum in Salt Lake City this fall. Museum officials announced Wednesday they will be showcasing the scrolls alongside about 600 artifacts from ancient Israel.

KSL-TV reports  that the exact dates for the exhibit have not yet been set. The scrolls and hundreds of manuscripts of religious and non-religious texts were written on leather and papyrus more than 2,000 years ago.

A goat herder discovered them stored in clay jars in one of the 12 Qumran Caves in the Judean Desert in 1947. Since then, intense efforts by archaeologists have led to the discovery of hundreds of manuscripts from the caves, which provided a stable environment to preserve treasures.