Qumran & the Dead Sea Scrolls

The site of Khirbet Qumran (a modern Arabic name) is located in the West Bank, near the northern edge of the Dead Sea, and is the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in nearby caves.

The first settlement was created during the Iron Age, but was abandoned about 2,600 years ago, long before the scrolls were made.

Archaeological work indicates that a second settlement existed between roughly 100 B.C. and A.D. 68, when it was captured by the Roman army and destroyed in a fire. The heat was so intense that modern-day archaeologists have found glass vessels “melted down” by it. It is in this settlement that many scholars believe at least some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were written before being hidden away.

Discovery of the scrolls

Explorers first came across Qumran in the 19th century, and the site took on new importance with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The scrolls were first found in 1946 or 1947 (accounts of the exact date vary) when a young shepherd by the name of Muhammed Edh-Dhib was looking for a stray goat. At one point “he was amusing himself by throwing stones. One of these fell into a small hole in the rock and was followed by the sound of the breaking of pottery,” writes researcher Geza Vermes in his book "The Story of the Scrolls" (Penguin Books, 2010). “Muhammed climbed in and found several ancient manuscripts in a jar. Altogether seven scrolls were subsequently removed from the cave.”

Over the next decade, local Bedouin and scientific researchers would discover the remains of more than 900 manuscripts in 11 caves (12 if you consider that cave four had two separate sections in antiquity). Each cave is located near Qumran, the furthest one being just over one mile (1.6 km) to the north of the site.

The scrolls found include copies of Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, Kings and Deuteronomy, among other canonical works from the Hebrew Bible. They also include calendars, hymns, psalms, apocryphal (non-canonical) biblical works and community rules. One scroll is made of copper and describes the location of buried treasure. There were no New Testament gospels found in the caves.

Study of the letter styles of the scrolls, along with carbon-14 dating, indicates that they were penned between roughly 200 B.C. and A.D. 70, the copper scroll being written perhaps a few decades later. Vermes writes that the vast majority of the scrolls are written in Hebrew with a smaller number in Aramaic and only a few in Greek (although Greek was a popular language at the time). Most of the scrolls were composed on leather (sheep and goat skin in particular).

Recent analysis of textiles found with the scrolls shows that the textiles were originally used as clothing. They are all made of linen (even though wool was the more popular garment at the time) with most of them undecorated. The researchers argue that according to historical accounts these textiles are similar to what people belonging to an ancient sect called the Essenes wore.

Qumran

The settlement of Qumran is very small and never grew much larger than one acre. Its population may have been no higher than a few dozen people.

Recent archaeological work by Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg of the Israel Antiquities Authority indicates that around 100 B.C. a Hasmonean military outpost with a watchtower and stables was constructed at Qumran. The Hasmoneans were a dynasty of Jewish rulers that controlled a state centered in modern-day Israel.

In an interview with the website Heritage Key, Peleg stressed that this outpost was a modest structure. “It’s a small site with small units. All its purpose was was to see that no enemy army was coming to the Dead Sea shores, climbing the cliffs towards Jerusalem.”

In 63 B.C., the Romans took control of the Hasmonean Kingdom, and archaeological work indicates that Qumran transitioned to civilian use. Magen and Peleg write that around this time the site’s water supply was “tripled” with the construction of an aqueduct and additional pools. Altogether, Qumran had eight stepped pools that some researchers believe to be ritual baths known as mikveh.

Why the water supply was increased is a matter of debate. A priest named Roland de Vaux, who excavated at Qumran about 50 years ago and first noted the stepped water pools, argued that the site’s population was increasing and the water system expansion was needed for drinking and baths.

Magen and Peleg argue that this is unlikely. Their excavations show that residential space at Qumran did not increase and that only two or three of the stepped pools were ritually suited to be used as mikveh. The researchers argue that pottery production was the reason for Qumran’s water system expansion. They point out that “tens of thousands of pottery fragments” were found at Qumran and their excavations reveal that at least one large pool had a thick layer of potter’s clay.

The people at Qumran apparently engaged in writing. De Vaux’s excavations revealed a room that he called the “scriptorium,” which had two inkwells along with plastered benches or tables. It could have been used for writing scrolls and/or business records, depending on how the site is interpreted.

Qumran’s cemeteries

Qumran has three cemeteries, the main burial ground located just to the east of the site. It’s estimated that 1,000 tombs are located in them, some dating to the time of Qumran but others (such as those made by local Bedouin) dating to much later.

Dating the burials at the cemetery is a difficult problem, writes Brian Schultz, of Bar Ilan University, in a 2006 article in the journal "Dead Sea Discoveries." Researchers have to rely on artifacts found in the tombs, the orientation of the burials (the Jewish burials are more likely to face north-south) and radiocarbon dating.

So far, 46 tombs have been excavated and published says Schultz, out of which 32 can be dated to the time of Qumran, most of them adult men. Schultz writes that the complete lack of children and the presence of (at most) only five women suggest that a monastic group composed mainly of men lived at Qumran.

Qumran and the scrolls

The relationship between the scrolls and Qumran is a source of great scholarly debate. Some researchers, such as de Vaux, have argued that the scrolls were deposited in the caves by the Essenes, who in turn lived at Qumran. On the other hand, some scholars, such as Magen and Peleg, argue that the site itself has no relationship to the scrolls, the manuscripts being deposited by refugees, likely from Jerusalem, fleeing the Roman army.

Robert Cargill, now a professor at the University of Iowa, has created a virtual model of Qumran, giving researchers a tool to help reconstruct its architecture.

He argues that multiple groups (including people from Qumran) could have been putting scrolls into the caves. This theory offers an explanation as to why there are scrolls written in three languages and why the copper scroll (discussing treasure) may date to after Qumran’s destruction.
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References:

Jarus, Owen. 2012. “Qumran & the Dead Sea Scrolls”. Live Science. Posted: November 6, 2012. Available online: http://www.livescience.com/24595-qumran-dead-sea-scrolls.html

Mystery of Dead Sea Scroll Authors Possibly Solved

The Dead Sea Scrolls may have been written, at least in part, by a sectarian group called the Essenes, according to nearly 200 textiles discovered in caves at Qumran, in the West Bank, where the religious texts had been stored.

Scholars are divided about who authored the Dead Sea Scrolls and how the texts got to Qumran, and so the new finding could help clear up this long-standing mystery.

The research reveals that all the textiles were made of linen, rather than wool, which was the preferred textile used in ancient Israel. Also they lack decoration, some actually being bleached white, even though fabrics from the period often have vivid colours. Altogether, researchers say these finds suggest that the Essenes, an ancient Jewish sect, "penned" some of the scrolls.

Not everyone agrees with this interpretation. An archaeologist who has excavated at Qumran told LiveScience that the linen could have come from people fleeing the Roman army after the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and that they are in fact responsible for putting the scrolls into caves.

Iconic scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of nearly 900 texts, the first batch of which were discovered by a Bedouin shepherd in 1947. They date from before A.D. 70, and some may go back to as early as the third century B.C. The scrolls contain a wide variety of writings including early copies of the Hebrew Bible, along with hymns, calendars and psalms, among other works. [Gallery of Dead Sea Scrolls]

Nearly 200 textiles were found in the same caves, along with a few examples from Qumran, the archaeological site close to the caves where the scrolls were hidden.

Orit Shamir, curator of organic materials at the Israel Antiquities Authority, and Naama Sukenik, a graduate student at Bar-Ilan University, compared the white-linen textiles found in the11 caves to examples found elsewhere in ancient Israel, publishing their results in the most recent issue of the journal Dead Sea Discoveries.

A breakthrough in studying these remains was made in 2007 when a team of archaeologists was able to ascertain that colorful wool textiles found at a site to the south of Qumran, known as the Christmas Cave, were not related to the inhabitants of the site. This meant that Shamir and Sukenik were able to focus on the 200 textiles found in the Dead Sea Scroll caves and at Qumran itself, knowing that these are the only surviving textiles related to the scrolls.

They discovered that every single one of these textiles was made of linen, even though wool was the most popular fabric at the time in Israel. They also found that most of the textiles would have originally been used as clothing, later being cut apart and re-used for other purposes such as bandages and for packing the scrolls into jars. [Photos of Dead Sea textiles]

Some of the textiles were bleached white and most of them lacked decoration, even though decoration is commonly seen in textiles from other sites in ancient Israel.

According to the researchers the finds suggest that the residents of Qumran dressed simply.

"They wanted to be different than the Roman world," Shamir told LiveScience in a telephone interview. "They were very humble, they didn't want to wear colorful textiles, they wanted to use very simple textiles."

The owners of the clothing likely were not poor, as only one of the textiles had a patch on it."This is very, very, important," Shamir said. "Patching is connected with [the] economic situation of the site."

Shamir pointed out that textiles found at sites where people were under stress, such as at the Cave of Letters, which was used in a revolt against the Romans, were often patched. On the other hand "if the site is in a very good economic situation, if it is a very rich site, the textiles will not be patched," she said. With Qumran, "I think [economically] they were in the middle, but I'm sure they were not poor."

Robert Cargill, a professor at the University of Iowa, has written extensively about Qumran and has developed a virtual model of it. He said that archaeological evidence from the site, including coins and glassware, also suggests the inhabitants were not poor.

"Far from being poor monastics, I think there was wealth at Qumran, at least some form of wealth," Cargill said, arguing that trade was important at the site. "I think they made their own pottery and sold some of it, I think they bred animals and sold them, I think they made honey and sold it."

Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Scholars are divided about who authored the Dead Sea Scrolls and how the texts got to Qumran. Some argue that the scrolls were written at the site itself while others say they were written in Jerusalem or elsewhere in Israel.

Qumran itself was first excavated by Roland de Vaux in the 1950s. He came to the conclusion that the site was inhabited by a religious sect called the Essenes who wrote the scrolls and stored them in caves. Among the finds he made were water pools, which he believed were used for ritual bathing, and multiple inkwells found in a room that became known as the "scriptorium." Based on his excavations, scholars have estimated the population of the site at as high as 200.

More recent archaeological work, conducted by Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg of the Israel Antiquities Authority, suggests that the site could not have supported more than a few dozen people and had nothing to do with the scrolls themselves. They believe that the scrolls were deposited in the caves by refugees fleeing the Roman army after Jerusalem was conquered in A.D. 70.

Magen and Peleg found that the site came into existence around 100 B.C. as a military outpost used by the Hasmoneans, a Jewish kingdom that flourished in the area. After the Romans took over Judaea in 63 B.C. the site was abandoned and eventually was taken over by civilians who used it for pottery production. They found that the pools de Vaux discovered include a fine layer of potters' clay.

There are other ideas as well. Cargill argues that while Qumran started out as a fort it was later occupied by a sectarian group whose members were deeply concerned with ritual purity. "Whether or not they are the Essenes, that's a different question," he said. This group, much smaller than earlier estimates of 200 people, would have written some of the scrolls, while collecting others, he argues.

Other groups, not part of the Qumran community, may also have been putting scrolls into the caves, Cargill said.

Can clothing solve the mystery?

The new clothing research may help to identify the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Shamir told LiveScience that it is unlikely the scrolls were deposited in the caves by Roman refugees. If that were the case, the more-popular textile in ancient Israel, wool, would have been found in the caves along with other garments.

"If people run away from Jerusalem they would take all sorts of textiles with them, not only linen textiles," she said. "The people who ran away to the Cave of Letters, they took wool textiles with them."

Peleg, the archaeologist who co-led the recent archaeological work at Qumran, told LiveScience he disagrees with that assessment. He said he stands by the idea that there is no connection between Qumran and the scrolls stored in the caves.

"We must remember that almost all the textiles were found in the caves and not at the site. The main question is the connection between the site and the scrolls," Peleg wrote in an email. "I can find alternative explanations for the fact that scrolls were found with linen."

For instance, linen could have been chosen as scroll wrapping for religious reasons or perhaps priests were responsible for storing the scrolls and they wore linen clothing. "The clothes of the priests were made from linen," Peleg wrote.

In their paper, Shamir and Sukenik say that the clothing found in the Dead Sea Scroll caves is similar to historical descriptions of the clothing of the Essenes, suggesting that they in fact lived at Qumran. They point to an ancient Jewish writer, Flavius Josephus, who wrote that the Essenes "make a point of keeping a dry skin and always being dressed in white." (However, Josephus never said anything about the clothing being made of linen, Peleg points out.)

Josephusalso wrote that the Essenes were very frugal when it came to clothing and shared goods with each other.

"In their dress and deportment they resemble children under rigorous discipline. They do not change their garments or shoes until they are torn to shreds or worn threadbare with age. There is no buying or selling among themselves, but each gives what he has to any in need and receives from him in exchange something useful to himself ..."

(Translation from "Jewish Life and Thought Among Greeks and Romans: Primary Readings," Louis Feldman and Meyer Reinhold, 1996.)

In their paper, Shamir and Sukenik also point to another ancient writer, Philo of Alexandria, who wrote that the Essenes wore a common style of simple dress.

"And not only is their table in common but their clothes also. For in winter they have a stock of stout coats ready and in summer cheap vests, so that he who wishes may easily take any garment he likes, since what one has is held to belong to all and conversely what all have one has."

(Translation from the "Selected Writing of Philo of Alexandria," edited by Hans Lewy, 1965.)

Cargill said that the clothing is further evidence that there was a Jewish sectarian group living at Qumran.

"You do have evidence of a group that raised its own animals, pressed its own date honey, that appears to have worn distinctive clothes and made its own pottery, and followed its own calendar, at least a calendar different from the temple priesthood," he said. "Those are all signs of a sectarian group."

He also noted the presence of mikveh (ritual baths) at the site and the fact that the residents could make pottery that was ritually pure.

This group appears to have wanted to separate itself from the priests based at the temple in Jerusalem. "There is a congruency within many of the sectarian documents that appears to be consistent with a sectarian group that has separated itself from the temple priesthood in Jerusalem," Cargill said.

According to Cargill's theory, the people of Qumran would have written some of the scrolls, while collecting others. "Obviously they didn't write all of the scrolls," Cargill said. Dating indicates some of the scrolls were written before Qumran even existed. One unusual scroll, made of copper, may have been deposited after Qumran was abandoned in A.D. 70.

Cargill says it's possible that some of the scrolls may have been put in caves from people outside the community. If that's true, some of the textiles could also be from people outside of Qumran.

"[If] not all of the Dead Sea Scrolls are the responsibility of sectarians at Qumran then it would follow that not all of the textiles that are discovered in the caves are [the] product of a sect at Qumran," Cargill said.

Were there women at Qumran?

The new research may also shed light on who created the textiles.

The textiles are of high quality and, based on the archaeological finds at Qumran itself, where there is little evidence of spindle whorls or loom weights, the team thinks it's unlikely they would have been made at the site.

"This is very, very important, because this is connected to gender," Shamir said, "spinning is connected with women."

She explained that the textiles were likely created at another site in Israel, with women playing a key role in their production. This suggests that there were few women living at Qumran itself. "Weaving is connected with men and women, but spinning was only a production of women, [and] we don't find this item at Qumran."
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References:

Jarus, Owen. 2011. "Mystery of Dead Sea Scroll Authors Possibly Solved". Live Science. Posted: November 21,2011. Available online: http://www.livescience.com/17123-dead-sea-scrolls-writers-textiles.html