Filming in Israel - Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Filming in Israel is a dream come true for crews filming historical, biblical and nature documentaries. Biblical Productions, which has been providing Production Services in Israel for many years, regularly takes crews to the most interesting and intriguing locations around the country. One of the most popular and historically most important filming locations is Qumran, where in 1947 a solitary Bedouin shepherd stumbled into the greatest archaeological find of the century – the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The wilderness of Judea, mile after mile of perched rock and barren hillside, was home to Bedouin shepherds and a connecting pathway for camel caravans. For thousands of years, the Judean desert has held secrets buried in its sands. Here, at the lowest point on earth near the Dead Sea, in the intense heat of the barren Judean desert, David fled from King Saul seeking refuge in the mountain caves, John the Baptist lived on locusts and wild honey, and Jesus rejected the temptations of the Devil. It was at the Northwestern point of the Dead Sea, where one afternoon in 1947 a small shepherd boy climbed into the caves of Qumran and discovered the scrolls.

Blind to the value of the rolls of old and rotting leather, the shepherd sold the scrolls for the low price of 7 Palestinian pounds. Yet the dealer realized their value quickly and sent the Bedouins back to the desert to look for more scrolls. On November 23rd 1947, Elazar Sukenik, Professor of Archaeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem received an urgent phone call from a friend, an Armenian antique dealer from the Old City. They arranged to meet the next morning. By afternoon, three scrolls were wrapped inconspicuously in newspaper on Sukenik’s lap.

In the following months, Sukenik and a small team at the Hebrew University began the delicate task of unrolling scrolls stuck together by 20 centuries of decomposition. They identified the almost complete manuscript of the Book of Isaiah, which remains the oldest biblical text ever found, almost identical to the Bible we read today.

Today, crews filming in Israel can see these scrolls exhibited in the Israel Museum. Film permits in Israel can be acquired by Biblical Productions as well as interviews with experts about the discovery and scientific examinations of the scrolls. Many crews filming in Israel choose to film in Qumran as well as in the Israel Museum, if their script explores the Dead Sea scrolls in depth. 

Meanwhile scholars at the American School of Oriental Research in East-Jerusalem (ASOR) opened and photographed the scrolls. A leading US Biblical scholar at Johns Hopkins University, Professor William F. Albright, declared that the scrolls were the work of the Essenes, a mysterious sect, and without hesitation announced that this was the most important archaeological find of the century. News of the discovery sent Bedouins, together with archaeologists, racing to excavate the area. In cave 4 alone, not far from the original cave, dug out of a sheer face of an escarpment, Bedouins found 15,000 fragments from about 500 scrolls.

During the spring of 1953, the archeologist, Father De Vaux, Director of the Ecole Biblique in East-Jerusalem, came to carry out the first extended excavation – a dig that would occupy him and his team for the next four springs and lead him to a view of an Essene life that would be argued about by scholars for decades. The two-month dig unearthed the remains of considerable construction; and it soon became clear that this was a well-established settlement.

The historical site of Qumran is one of the most popular film locations in Israel for crews. Having become a well-known National Park, Qumran offers a solid wood path that leads through the excavated ruins, as well as a film and a little museum. The caves themselves are currently not accessible for the public, however, filmmakers can get great shots from an empty riverbed next to the caves, as well as from up above at the park. The white soft hills that hid the Dead Sea Scrolls for so long form a nice contrast to the sharp mountains of the Judean desert in the background. More caves from ancient times are accessible at the back of the sites; however, caution is advised when climbing over the rocky paths with camera and sound equipment.