The Dead Sea Scrolls, the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century, is now available online for free viewing. It is a project of Google and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
The Dead Sea Srolls available for free viewing online are:
(1) The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa): it is one of the original seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in Qumran in 1947. It is the largest (734 mm) and best preserved of all the biblical scrolls – http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah
(2) The Temple Scroll (11Q19): it was discovered in 1956 in Cave 11, located about 2 km north of Khirbet Qumran. The manuscript is written in Hebrew in the square Herodian script of the late Second Temple Period (the first half of the first century AD), on extremely thin animal skin (one-tenth of a millimeter), making it the thinnest parchment scroll ever found in the caves of Qumran – http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/temple
(3) The War Scroll (1QM): it is one of the seven original Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in Qumran in 1947. It contains 19 columns (originally there were at least twenty), of which the first 14–19 lines (out of at least 21–22) are preserved – http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/war
(4) The Community Rule Scroll (1QS): also known as the “Manual of Discipline,” is the major section of one of the first seven scrolls discovered in Cave 1 at Qumran in 1947 – http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/community .
(5) The Commentary of Habakkuk Scroll (1QpHab): it is a relative complete scroll (1.48 m long) and one of the seven original Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in caves of Qumran in 1947. It interprets the first two chapters of the book of Habakkuk and comprises 13 columns written in Hebrew, in a square Herodian script. However, the tetragrammaton, the four-letter, ineffable name of God, is written in ancient Hebrew characters, unlike the rest of the text – http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/habakkuk
The high resolution photographs, taken by Ardon Bar-Hama, are up to 1,200 megapixels, almost 200 times more than the average consumer camera, so viewers can see even the most minute details in the parchment. The photographer used ultraviolet-protected flash tubes to light the scrolls for 1/4000th of a second. The exposure time – which is much shorter than a conventional camera flash – was designed to protect the scrolls from damage.
