The task of preservation was taken seriously, as evidenced
by the estimated 20,000 clay tablets stored in the archives of
Ebla (modern Tell Mardikh, Syria) dating from approximately
2250 BCE [2] and the hundreds of thousands of papyrus rolls--
estimates range from 200,000 to 700,00--stored in the Great
Library of Alexandria [3]. Although natural and man-made
disasters destroyed many of these ancient records, others have
been preserved naturally and discovered accidentally, including
the Dead Sea Scrolls written on parchment, dating from
approximately 250 B.C. to about 65 A.D., and discovered in
caves along the shores of the Dead Sea from 1947 to 1956