The Dead Sea Scrolls: Qumran in perspective

The Scrolls have fulfilled an age-old expectation in that they are written documents belonging to the Bible or connected with it. They were found not in Egypt or Syria, but in the Holy Land itself. Thus at long last, the land of the Bible, dug and turned over by archaeologists thousands of times in hundreds of places, has given the lie to the thesis that no ancient text written on perishable material such as leather or papyrus could resist the ravages of the Palestinian climate. The Scrolls are a dream that has come true. - p. 10.