How it was discovered
Bedouin located Cave 11 about two kilometres north of Khirbet Qumran in early 1956; the archaeological team followed immediately. Conditions inside had been dry and stable enough to preserve several long, well-formed scrolls. The Temple Scroll passed through the dealer Kando and was recovered by Yigael Yadin for Israel during the 1967 war; he published it in 1977.
Why it matters
The Psalms Scroll shows the Psalter was still fluid in the first century BCE, while the Temple Scroll presents God speaking Torah in the first person — the clearest statement of the community's alternative vision for worship.
Source & further reading