The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 is one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. The scrolls, which date from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD, are a collection of Jewish religious texts written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. They were found in a series of caves in the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea, and are believed to have been written by a Jewish sect known as the Essenes.