It's not quite as exciting as discovering the Ark of the Covenant, but a 2,000-year-old scroll depicting the Ten Commandments is the highlight of an already landmark exhibit at the San Diego Natural History Museum.

The museum this week began displaying the second of its two-part series of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the largest collection of the artifacts ever displayed in the United States. The 24-scroll exhibit, which runs until Dec. 31, is in two parts because the Israel Antiquities Authority allows only 12 scrolls to leave the country at a time.

Curator Risa Levitt Kohn, director of San Diego State University's Jewish Studies Program and an associate professor of Hebrew Bible and Judaism in the Religious Studies Department, said the scrolls demonstrate how consistent the Bible has been over 2,000 years.

The scrolls date from 250 B.C. to A.D. 68 and contain 230 biblical manuscripts from almost every book in the Hebrew Bible. They are more than 1,000 years older than any previously known copies of the Bible.

Scholars have been piecing together the scrolls' meaning since the artifacts were discovered in caves near the Dead Sea in Israel in 1947.

The Ten Commandments portion is said to be significant because it is the oldest and best-preserved of all the Deuteronomy manuscripts that were discovered in the find. Deuteronomy is one of the Old Testament books of the Bible.

The Ten Commandments text is longer than traditional translations of the Commandments, according to the exhibit's literature, and it includes the two biblical versions of the Sabbath commandment, Exodus 20:11 and Deuteronomy 5:11. Still, its content is easily recognized.

The text reads in part: "You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, and any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters below the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am an impassioned god."

About 900 scrolls were discovered in 11 caves near the Dead Sea region. Most were protected by clay vases, but still had been eaten away by fungi, worms and moisture.

After connecting about 100,000 pieces, scholars have found that the scrolls contain biblical books, hymns, prayers and other important documents many believe were written by a Jewish sect known as the Essenes, who lived near the Dead Sea.

While some of the jars that protected the scrolls were more than 3 feet high, some scrolls on exhibit are surprisingly small. Most are a dark tan, while one, the Testimonia document, which contains five quotes from the Hebrew Bible, is notably lighter and has very legible writing.

Another scroll fragment called the Zephaniah-Haggai is in six pieces, with the smallest about the size of a fingernail. The scroll was not protected by a jar, yet despite its conditions, scholars were able to detect a critical transition from the end of one prophet's text to the beginning of another.

The story of how scholars were able to decipher meaning from thumbnail-size pieces of parchment also is part of the exhibit, which contains much more than just the scrolls.

On the museum's top floor are hands-on displays of excavation equipment and a life-sized tent not unlike one that would provide shade to Middle East archaeologists sifting through pieces of pottery or delicately unfurling ancient scrolls.

The exhibit also features large, colorful photos of Israel today and a comparison of the country to San Diego County, which is about half the size of the entire country.

Comparing the two, the exhibit notes that both Israel and San Diego County have inland salt seas, mountains, oaks and a coastline.

Adding extra dimensions to the display, photos of shepherds are accompanied by the sounds of bells and the "baas" of sheep. An overhead photo of snorkelers swimming in the clear blue water of the Red Sea and pictures of lush hillsides contradict the image of Israel as a dry, desert land.

Much of the exhibit also focuses on the ancient city of Qumran. It's unknown whether the citizens of Qumran wrote the scrolls themselves, but some of the writings outlined daily rituals such as praying, studying and bathing.

Museum visitors can take a virtual tour of a digitally re-created Qumran, which had a sophisticated system of water transportation to survive in the parched region.

Among the scrolls on exhibit are Paleo-Leviticus, composed of portions of the last six chapters of the biblical book of Leviticus dealing with laws of worship and the observance of Jewish holy days Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and a portion of the books of First and Second Samuel from the Hebrew Bible.

Other scrolls contain comments on Genesis, songs of the Sabbath, a lease agreement, the Messianic Apocalypse, and portions of books called War and Enoch.

For information on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the exhibit, visit the Natural History Museum's Web site at http://www.sdnhm.org.

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.