United States Professor Norman Golb has offered an alternative view of the ancient Qumran scrolls, also known as the Dead Sea scrolls, which are usually believed to have been written by a sect known as the Essenes. Instead, Golb says, the scrolls were written by Jewish residents of Judea who fled from the Romans in 70 C.E.
Golb’s theories regarding the scrolls are controversial, but he says he has support from recent archeological work. 10 years of excavations at Qumran, the home of the Essene sect said by others to have written the scrolls, provide evidence in his favor, he claims.