The Copper Scroll (3Q15) is one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Cave 3 near Khirbet Qumran, but differs significantly from the others. Whereas the other scrolls are written on parchment or papyrus, this scroll is written on metal: copper mixed with about 1 percent tin, although no metallic copper remained in the strips; the action of the centuries had been to convert the metal into brittle oxide.J.T. Milik, The Copper Document from Cave III, Qumran, p. 61 The so-called 'scrolls' of copper were, in reality, two separated sections of what was originally a single scroll about in length. Unlike the others, it is not a literary work, but a list of 64 places where various items of gold and silver were buried or hidden. It differs from the other scrolls in its Hebrew (closer to the language of the Mishnah than to the literary Hebrew of the other scrolls, though 4QMMT shares some language characteristics), its orthography, palaeography (forms of letters) and date (, possibly overlapping with the latest of the other Qumran manuscripts).

Since 2013, the Copper Scroll has been on display at the newly opened Jordan Museum in Amman after being moved from its previous home, the Jordan Archaeological Museum on Amman's Citadel Hill.

A new facsimile of the Copper Scroll by Facsimile Editions of London was announced as being in production in 2014.

History While most of the Dead Sea Scrolls were found by Bedouins, the Copper Scroll was discovered by an archaeologist. The scroll, on two rolls of copper, was found on March 14, 1952 at the back of Cave 3 at Qumran. It was the last of 15 scrolls discovered in the cave, and is thus referred to as 3Q15. The corroded metal could not be unrolled by conventional means and so the Jordanian government sent it to Manchester University's College of Technology in England on the recommendation of English archaeologist and Dead Sea Scrolls scholar John Marco Allegro for it to be cut into sections, allowing the text to be read. He arranged for the university's Professor H. Wright Baker to cut the sheets into 23 strips in 1955 and 1956.Allegro 1960, pp. 22–24, 27. It then became clear that the rolls were part of the same document. Allegro, who had supervised the opening of the scroll, transcribed its contents immediately.

The first editor assigned for the transcribed text was Józef Milik. He initially believed that the scroll was a product of the Essenes but noted that it was likely not an official work of theirs. At first, he believed that it was not an actual historical account; he believed it was that of folklore. Later however, Milik's view changed. Since there was no indication that the scroll was a product of the Essenes from the Qumran community, he changed his identification of the scroll. He now believes that the scroll was separate from the community, although it was found at Qumran in Cave 3, it was found further back in the cave, away from the other scrolls. As a result, he suggested the Copper Scroll was a separate deposit, separated by a "lapse in time."

Although the text was assigned to Milik, in 1957 the Jordanian Director of Antiquities approached Allegro to publish the text. After a second approach by a new director of Jordanian Antiquities,Allegro, 1960, p. 6. Allegro, who had waited for signs of Milik of moving to publish, took up the second request and published an edition with translation and hand-drawn transcriptions from the original copper segments in 1960. Milik published his official edition in 1962, also with hand-drawn transcriptions, though the accompanying black-and-white photographs were "virtually illegible".Al Wolters, article on the "Copper Scroll", in Schiffman, 2000a (Vol.2), p.146. The scroll was re-photographed in 1988 with greater precision. From 1994 to 1996, extensive conservation efforts by Electricité de France (EDF) included evaluation of corrosion, photography, x-rays, cleaning, making a facsimile and a drawing of the letters. Emile Puech's edition had the benefit of these results.See Poffet, et al. 2006.

Dating Scholarly estimates of the probable date range of the Copper Scroll vary. Frank Moore Cross proposed the period of 25–75 CE on palaeographical grounds, while William F. Albright suggested 70–135 CE.Al Wolters, article on the "Copper Scroll", in Schiffman, 2000a (Vol.2), p.146. Manfred Lehmann put forward a similar date range to Albright, arguing that the treasure was principally the money accumulated between the First Jewish–Roman War and the Bar Kokhba revolt, while the temple lay in ruins. P. Kyle McCarter Jr., Albert M. Wolters, David Wilmot and Judah Lefkovits all agree that the scroll originated around 70 CE. Contrarily, Emile Puech argues that the Copper Scroll could not have been deposited behind 40 jars after they were already in place, so the scroll "predates 68 CE."Puech, "Some Results of the Restoration of the Copper Scroll by EDF Mecenat", in Schiffman, 2000b, p.893.

Józef Milik proposed that the scroll was written around 100 CE. If this dating is correct, it would mean that the scroll did not come from the Qumran community because the settlement had been destroyed by the Romans decades earlier.

Language and writing style The style of writing is unusual, different from the other scrolls. It is written in a style similar to Mishnaic Hebrew. While Hebrew is a well-known language, the majority of ancient Hebrew text in which the language is studied is generally biblical in nature, which the Copper Scroll is not. As a result, "most of the vocabulary is simply not found in the Bible or anything else we have from ancient times." The orthography is unusual, the script having features resulting from being written on copper with hammer and chisel. There is also the anomaly that seven of the location names are followed by a group of two or three Greek letters, thought by some to represent numerical values.Lefkovits (1994), p. 123 Also, the "clauses" within the scroll mark parallels to that of Greek inventories, from the Greek temple of Apollo. This similarity to the Greek inventories, would suggest that scroll is in fact an authentic "temple inventory."

Some scholars believe that the difficulty in deciphering the text is perhaps due to it having been copied from another original document by an illiterate scribe who did not speak the language in which the scroll was written, or at least was not well familiar. As Milik puts it, the scribe "uses the forms and ligature of the cursive script along with formal letters, and often confuses graphically several letters of the formal hand." As a result, it has made translation and understanding of the text difficult.

Contents The text is an inventory of 64 locations; 63 of which are treasures of gold and silver, which have been estimated in the tons. For example, one single location described on the copper scroll describes 900 talents (30.05 tons/ 868,000 troy ounces) of buried silver. Tithing vessels are also listed among the entries, along with other vessels, and three locations featured scrolls. One entry apparently mentions priestly vestments. The final listing points to a duplicate document with additional details. That other document has not been found.

The following English translation of the opening lines of the first column of the Copper Scroll shows the basic structure of each of the entries in the scroll. The structure is 1) general location, 2) specific location, often with distance to dig, and 3) what to find.

1:1 In the ruin that is in the valley of Acor, under 1:2 the steps, with the entrance at the East, 1:3 a distance of forty cubits: a strongbox of silver and its vessels 1:4 with a weight of seventeen talents.

There is a minority view that the Cave of Letters might have contained one of the listed treasures, and, if so, artifacts from this location may have been recovered. Although the scroll was made of alloyed copper in order to last, the locations are written as if the reader would have an intimate knowledge of obscure references. For example, consider column two, verses 1–3, "In the salt pit that is under the steps: forty-one talents of silver. In the cave of the old washer's chamber, on the third terrace: sixty-five ingots of gold." As noted above, the listed treasure has been estimated in the tons. There are those who understand the text to be enumerating the vast treasure that was 'stashed,' where the Romans could not find it. Others still suggest that the listed treasure is that which Bar Kokhba hid during the Second Revolt. Although it is difficult to estimate the exact amount, "it was estimated in 1960 that the total would top $1,000,000 U.S." ().

Translation Selected excerpts

According to Eusebius' , "Achor" – perhaps being a reference to an ancient town - is located to the north of Jericho. However, in relation to the "Valley of Achor", Eusebius' view is rejected by most historical geographers, who place the "Valley of Achor" to the south of Jericho, either at the modern el-Buqei'ah, or at Wâdi en-Nu'eimeh. Elsewhere, Eusebius places Emekachor (the Valley of Achor) near Galgal. The "ruin in the valley of Achor" could be one of a number of sites: the ancient Beth-ḥagla, or what is also known as the "threshing floor of the Aṭad", the most famous of all the ruins associated with the nation of Israel and being about two miles from the Jordan River, or else the ancient Beth Arabah, and which John Marco Allegro proposed to be identified with 'Ain Gharabah,Allegro (1964), p. 63 while Robertson Smith proposed that it be identified with the modern 'Ain al-Feshkha,Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), s.v. Beth-Arabah or else Khirbet es-Sŭmrah, or Khirbet Qumrân. Another ruin at that time was the fortress Hyrcania, which had been destroyed some years earlier.

The Hebrew word , translated here as "brick tiles", is used also in the Babylonian Talmud () 16b and 3b. The Hebrew word for "talents" is (). The weight of a talent varied with time and place. Amongst Jews in the early 2nd century CE, the was synonymous with the word , a unit of weight that exceeds all others, divided equally into 100 parts. According to Epiphanius of Salamis, the (), a Latin loanword used in Hebrew classical sources for the biblical talent (), is said to have been a weight corresponding to 100 Roman . The Hebrew word used for "chest" is , a word found in Mishnah 15:1, ibid. 18:1, 6:5, and explained by Hai Gaon in Mishnah 22:8 as meaning "an [ornamental] chest or trunk."

There were several monuments of renown during the waning years of the Second Temple: that of Queen Helena, that of Yoḥanan the High Priest, both of which were in Jerusalem, or else outside the walls of the ancient Old City, etc. The Hebrew word used for "burial monument" is (), which same word appears in Mishnah 2:5; 7:1, and 5:1, and which Talmudic exegete Hai Gaon explained as meaning "the building built over the grave; the same marker being a ." The Hebrew word for "ingots" is (), its only equivalent found in Mishnah 11:3, and in Ezekiel 27:19, and which has the general meaning of "gold in its rawest form; an unshaped mass." Since no location is mentioned, most scholars think that this is a continuation of the previous section.