Secrets of the Copper Scroll
Assistant Professor Alison Schofield is pictured in front of the cave near Qumran, Israel, where the Copper Scroll was found.
Assistant Professor Alison Schofield belongs to a select group of scholars who study the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some of her most intriguing work focuses on the mysterious Copper Scroll, which may point the way to more than $1 billion in treasure.
The story of the Dead Sea Scrolls
"There has always been mystery surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls," says Schofield, who has joint positions with DU's Department of Religious Studies and the Center for Judaic Studies.
The scrolls were probably written between 200 B.C.E. and 68 C.E. by a Jewish sect called the Essenes, Schofield says. The Essenes fled into the desert because of corruption within the Temple of Jerusalem, and they created a community on the shore of the Dead Sea, she explains.
The scrolls survived for more than 2,000 years buried in caves. They were rediscovered in 1947.
"They are the most important manuscripts found in Biblical archaeology," says Schofield, who's one of only a few scholars who approach the scrolls from a Judaic perspective.
The treasure hunt
One of the Dead Sea Scrolls is called the Copper Scroll, and it stands out from the rest. It's written on copper sheets, rather than animal skins or papyrus, and it's composed in a less formal Hebrew. But most important, rather than addressing theology, it describes 63 hidden hoards of gold, silver and bronze that the Essenes took from the Jerusalem Temple before it was destroyed by the Romans. The scroll gives directions to where the Essenes hid the treasure, which has never been found.
The History Channel filmed Schofield at work in Israel for a 2007 episode of its series "Digging for the Truth."
Some scholars believe the story of a buried fortune is too good to be true, but Schofield and others disagree. "It's not written in a fairytale fashion; it doesn't sound like fiction," she says. "It's boring, very dry, almost in a bookkeeping style."
Although Schofield believes the Copper Scroll did show the way to the Temple of Jerusalem's treasure at one time, she doesn't know whether the caches of precious metals still exist. The Essenes may have moved them at a later date, or they may have been looted centuries ago.
Even if the treasure is still in place, the directions on the scroll are so general that there's no definitive way to know where the map starts, Schofield says.
Finding historical riches
Whether or not it ever leads to ancient riches, the Copper Scroll offers Schofield and other researchers an invaluable glance two millennia into the past.
"We have very few texts surviving from this time," Schofield says. "The scrolls illuminate the Bible; they are the greatest window into biblical text ever. They also illuminate a Judaism of the time that most people don't know existed."
Schofield is still investigating why the Essenes moved into the desert and why they hid the treasure. She's presenting her research in an upcoming book: Community and Identity in the Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Synthesis.
Schofield's work caught the eye of the History Channel as well. Her research was featured in an April 2007 episode of the series "Digging for the Truth." In early August 2007, the show will film more footage for a future episode.
Despite the attention, Schofield hasn't lost sight of the Copper Scroll's real value. "From a scholar's perspective, the real treasure is the window it gives us to otherwise unknown aspects of Judaism," she says.
Published on July 31, 2007