This symposium will assess the implications of the Dead Sea Scrolls for our knowledge of the history of the Jewish people in the land of Israel from the period leading up to the Maccabean Revolt to the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (c. 20 0 BCE-200 CE). The rich discoveries from the various sites along the Dead Sea and its immediate vicinity (Qumran, Masada, Nahal Hever, Wadi Murabba'at, Nahal Seelim, Nahal Mishmar, Khirbet Mird, Wadi el-Daliyeh and Jericho) will be considered together wit h the previously known sources for this period (inscriptions, documents, historiographical writings, early rabbinic sources, and other ancient literature). The symposium will serve as a forum for discussion of the integration of these diverse ancient sour ces with the aim of attaining a better picture of the political, economic, social, and religious history of the period.