Khirbet Qumran
The surrounding caves in which were found the DSS contained pottery contemporary with Levels Ib and II. Many of the scrolls had been copied at Khirbet Qumran (a scriptorium was found in Level II), and prob. were deposited in the caves in a.d. 68 when the Rom. conquest was imminent.
The identity of the community is uncertain, but most scholars would now connect them with the Essenes (q.v.). See Dead Sea Scrolls.
Bibliography
J. T. Milik, Ten Years of Discovery in the Wilderness of Judaea (1959), 45-56; FLAP, 273-276; R. de Vaux, L’archéologie et les manuscrits de la Mer Morte (1961), 1-39.