A new generation takes up the hunt for Dead Sea Scrolls

FILE PHOTO: Volunteers and archaeologists work at an archaeological dig near caves in the Qumran area in the Israeli-occupied West Bank January 15, 2019.REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

QUMRAN, West Bank (Reuters) - In the cliffs high above the Dead Sea archaeologists chip away with pick axes, hoping to repeat one of the most sensational discoveries of the last hundred years - the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The scrolls, a collection of manuscripts, some more than 2,000 years old, were first found in 1947 by local Bedouin in the area of Qumran, about 20 km east of Jerusalem.