to the area of Qumran (this much was at least clear about the cave’s location) and caught the Bedouin at their work; they had apparently been removing material from the cave for three days before they were stopped. They made off with their valuable discoveries, meaning that what they had taken would have to be purchased from them (no small matter when thin budgets were already strained by the amounts that had peen spent to acquire other manuscripts and fragments). An official excavation of the cave