SCROLL OF ESTHER: This is the first of six panels in a fourteen foot long Megillat Esther, Scroll of Esther. The text is written by a sofer stam, a scribe following the laws and traditions of writing a megillah. It is written on klaf, the traditional parchment used for scrolls. The scroll is decorated by cutting the parchment, as one would cut paper. The theme of the decorations is a palace, such as Esther may have lived in, in Persia. There are elements throughout the scroll that refer to aspects of the story of Esther, and many of the patterns used come from Hisham's Palace, a Persian compound excavated near the Dead Sea.