The Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit

Last weekend Gabe and I had the extreme pleasure of visiting The Dead Sea Scrolls in Fort Worth.  

In our history studies the past couple of weeks we have learned about Nero, the martyrs of the Early Church, the Jewish historian, Josephus, the Fortress of Masada, and The Dead Sea Scrolls - and ALL of these topics were covered in the exhibit!! I can not tell you how amazing it was! Unfortunately, cameras are not allowed at the exhibit, so I didn't get any pictures of the exhibit itself and the pictures I do have are all off of my phone, so you are just going to have to take my word for it, or plan a trip to Fort Worth and see for yourself. 

We spent a little over an hour seeing artifacts from Masada (where a sect of Jews fled from the Romans in AD 63, were pursued and eventually committed mass suicide), coins from the first century AD, early print Bibles and of course, fragments of original scrolls bearing texts from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, the Psalms, Isaiah, and Daniel. Each time our tour guide would say something that we had been studying, Gabe would give me this big smile! 

After seeing the exhibit, we visited the gift shop where we purchased a souvenir for ourselves, Daddy, Selah, Mig and a few birthday gifts for family members.

Next we headed to the lobby where a Mediterranean  Restaurant was catering for the exhibit and bought a gyro, some hummus, and baklava. We then ate our Mediterranean cuisine in a Bedouin tent.

After lunch we went over to the Qumran Simulated Dig Site. This was Gabe's favorite part of the exhibit. 

The dig site was layered with real ancient artifacts and 2,000-year-old potsherds from the Ancient Near East, contributed by the Smithsonian Institute. They say that if you find one, you can take it home with you. Well, our guide had a lot of fun with my little guy and was touched that he was trying to find a piece of pottery for his siblings. He ended up letting him not only take home a potsherd for himself, but also for Selah and Mig. I even found a marble tesserae from a Roman mosaic that I was able to bring home as well. 

Gabe really enjoyed being an archaeologist and after digging awhile uncovered a column: 

He then helped another visitor uncover an ancient plate (though tessera and pottery are the only things you can take home with you). Here he is with his finds and a big smile:

This was definitely a trip to remember! If you get a chance to See the Scrolls, don't pass up the opportunity!