Qumran is an archaeological site in the West Bank by the nation of Israel. It is best known as the settlement nearest to the Qumran Caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were kept. The excavations were carried out by Roland de Vaux in the 1950s, though several later works at the site have since been carried out. The Biblical documents found at Qumran have been very useful to scholars of the Bible, Judaism and Christianity, as it allows them to understand the history of the Jewish community that lived there as well as the history of the Bible (such as which books were part of the canon or when certain books were written).