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If you are heading to the Science Museum of Minnesota on Friday to check out one of the most important exhibits to ever come to Minnesota, you might want to use these Cliff Notes to impress your date/kids/friends/etc.

Why is this exhibit so important?

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls is one of the most significant archaeological finds in the 20th century.  These ancient Hebrew scrolls were accidentally discovered by a shepherd in 1947, having been hidden for almost 2,000 years in remote caves along the northwestern coast of the Dead Sea.  It is the oldest known hand-scribed Bible by 1,000 years.

That’s the way we Scroll

The Scrolls are the first written record of the Bible.

The Scrolls are over 2,000 years old.

The Scrolls include fragments of the earliest texts of the Bible.

The Science Museum is the first museum to ever display 3 sets of 5 Scrolls.

There are a total of 40,000 fragments that comprise the Dead Sea Scrolls.  They have been priced together to form 931 documents.

Old vs. New:  The St John’s Bible is the newest Bible and is displayed along with the oldest…the Dead Sea Scrolls.

BONUS FUN FACT:  Why is it called the Dead Sea? The Dead sea is s0-called because  of its high concentration of salt: 3,000 mg of salt per liter of water.  The Dead Sea is 8.6 times saltier than the ocean.  Almost no organic life is able to survive in its waters, although bacteria and microbial fungi are present.

The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition opens Friday, March 12, 2010, and continues through October 24, 2010 at the Science Museum of Minnesota.  Tickets are $28 for adults and $22 for kids and seniors.  (Ticket price includes museum admission, The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition, The Saint John’s Bible exhibition and Dead Sea Scrolls audio tour, which features adults and family versions.)  As with past special exhibitions, admission to The Dead Sea Scrolls will be times and dated; visitors will be asked to choose a specific date for their visit when they purchase their tickets, as well as a time to enter The Dead Sea Scrolls.

For more information check out:  www.smm.org

What was your favorite Science Museum exhibit?  Bodyworlds, Titanic, Star Wars, or Pompeii?  Maybe you are an Omnifest fan?  Let us know!  If you check out the Dead Sea Scrolls, let us know how it is!

Images courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.