Qumran
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- This article refers to the real Qumran. For the fictional country in the British sitcom Yes Minister, see Qumran (fictional country).
Qumran (Hebrew:חירבת קומראן Khirbet Qumran) is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in Israel. The site was constructed sometime during the reign of John Hyrcanus, 134-104 BCE and saw various phases of occupation until, in the summer of 68, Titus and his X Fretensis destroyed it. It is best known as the settlement nearest to the hiding place of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the caves of the sheer desert cliffs. Location near
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[edit] Introduction
Since the discovery in the middle of the 20th century of nearly 900 scrolls in various states of completeness, mostly written on parchment, extensive excavations of the settlement have been undertaken. Jewish ritual baths and cemeteries have been found, along with a large cistern, a dining or assembly room, an alleged scriptorium, and a guard tower.
Most scholars believe the location to have been home to a Jewish sect, perhaps the Essenes; others have proposed that it was a villa for a single wealthy family, or even that it was a Roman fort. The large cemetery nearby may contain some answers. Large numbers of women buried there would give an indication of what the occupants of the settlement were like and who lived there, but under Jewish law excavating cemeteries is forbidden. Over a thousand bodies are buried at Qumram cemetery, a number archaeologist David Stacey contends is far too many for the size of the settlement there. One theory is that bodies were brought to Qumram because burial was easier there than in rockier surrounding areas. [1]
The scrolls were found in a series of caves just to the west of the settlement. Some of the caves seem to have been permanent libraries with built in shelves. The texts found in them represent the beliefs and practices of different Jewish religious orientations. A number of them appear to have been selected for the library there, when Qumran is thought to have become the asylum for supporters of the traditional priestly family of the Zadokites against the Hasmonean priest/kings. A letter found in the 1990s expresses the reasons for creating a community, some of which mirror Sadducean arguments in the Talmud. But most of the scrolls seem to have been dumped in the caves only during the turmoil of the First Jewish Revolt, at a time when Jericho and Jerusalem were facing the sack, or had already been sacked, but Qumran was still standing and secretly accessible from Jerusalem via the Kidron Valley.
[edit] Recent archaeological analysis
More recently the theory of Qumran being a religious settlement has garnered critique by some archaeologists who consider the notion very unlikely. In the late 1980s Robert Donceel, while working on the materials left by the original archaeologist of Qumran, Roland de Vaux, found artifacts which did not fit the religious settlement model, including glassware and stoneware. In 1992 Pauline Donceel-Voute (Wise 1994) put forward the Roman villa model in an attempt to explain these artifacts. Donceel-Voute's interpretation has been shown wanting because of the lack of other artifacts expected if Qumran were a villa (e.g. Magness 2002). While the villa model now seems dubious, the evidence that it tried to explain has led to further attempts at explanation. Some analysts have suggested that Qumran was a commercial trading center ("entrepot"). For others it was a pottery production center.
A survey and spatial studies carried out by Finnish and British archaeologists in the area of Qumran in the 1990s have brought into light new results which are supported by natural scientists. This theory based on a modern spatial study (see Lonnqvist and Lonnqvist 2002 and scientific peer-reviewed isprs organisation article 2004 on the website link below) of the orientations of the settlement and the graves, shows that both the settlement and the graves belonged to an intentional planning scheme. This intentional scheme, the writers claim, indicates that the settlement and its cemetery are connected to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Essenes.
Pottery, glass and coins found at Qumran and along the shore are existing proof of flourishing trade connections in the area, and provide evidence that Qumran did not live in a vacuum in the Graeco-Roman period. Rachel Bar-Nathan (ed. Galor et al. 2006) has shown from similarities between pottery finds at Qumran and at the Herodian winter palaces of Jericho that Qumran should be seen as part of the Jordan valley context rather than as an isolated site. The famous cylindrical "scroll jars" from Qumran, once thought to be unique, she shows to have existed at Masada as well.
The several large stepped cisterns which are a feature of Qumran have over recent decades been considered to be ritual baths. This is certainly within keeping of the religious settlement model and several ritual baths have been found in Jerusalem. There are logistical problems in understanding all these cisterns as baths, however. Qumran's water arrived perhaps twice a year from run off of water brought down by rain. Water was one of Qumran's most valued commodities and water management is an integral part of the site, as seen with the numerous cisterns and channels. If the large cisterns were ritual baths the water would sit getting dirtier through ritual bathing throughout the year and was extremely infrequently replenished by the run off. The current state of analysis of the cisterns is still unresolved, but Katharina Galor (Humbert 2003 Scientific analyses) suggests a mixed usage of the stepped cisterns as both ritual baths and water storage.According to the Israeli archaeologists Magen and Peleg (ed. Galor et al. 2006), the clay found in the cisterns was used for pottery factory facilities. However, some natural scientists, such as an Israeli scholar C. Klein, have put forward evidence which suggests that Qumran has been under flooding which is responsible for aragonite crusting on the walls of the buildings as well as layers of clay accumulation in the structures.
[edit] Religious settlement
The French who originally excavated the site still insist that the settlement served as an Essene site. A strong link between the ruins, the scrolls and the Essenes is the solar calendar comprised in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The alignment of the ruins follows the typical orientations of the societies using a solar calendar. Locus 77, known as a refectory or an assembly hall, in the Qumran settlement, is aligned according to the mid-summer solstice sunset. This has been empirically proven. Both the French and Finnish scholars agree that it served as a sanctuary for the Essenes.
According to the information given by Philo of Alexandria, the closest community comparable to the Essenes is the Jewish Therapeutae known to have lived in Graeco-Roman Egypt. Philo describes the customs of the Jewish Therapeutae of Egypt and the Essenes. He clearly describes the penetration of the Egyptian solar adoration and Pythagorean beliefs to the customs of the Jewish Therapeutae, while Josephus tells about the invocation of the sun by the Essenes and the rules not to defile the rays of the deity (visible rays that can only refer to the Sun) when one is doing the private deeds in wilderness. Common doctrines with solar aspirations between the Jewish Therapeutae of Egypt and the Essenes lead to the common roots with the Jews in exile in Egypt, exemplified in the influence of the Egyptian and Pythagorean calendars. It is also to be emphasized that the only comparable communal texts to the Dead Sea Scrolls have been found in the Geniza of the Caraite synagogue in Cairo in Egypt, which also is another external link to indicate the connections to Egypt. The sun dial found in Qumran follows the skaphion type used by the Pythagorean Aristarchos of Samos in Alexandria. Interestingly Josephus characterises the Essenes as comparable to the Pythagoreans. One needs to bear in mind that, when the settlement of Qumran dating to the Graeco-Roman period was established, Alexandria was a major city with a number of Jewish residents, and Qumran area was under the rule of the Ptolemies and Seleucids before the Roman occupation.
[edit] See also
- Temple in Jerusalem: section on Possible Temple at Qumran under Attempts at Rebuilding
[edit] References
- Archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Roland de Vaux, OUP, 1973.
- Methods of Investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Khirbet Qumran Site, ed. Michael O. Wise, Norman Golb, John J. Collins, and Dennis G. Pardee, New York, 1994.
- Archaeology of the Hidden Qumran, The New Paradigm, M. Lonnqvist and K. Lonnqvist, Helsinki University Press, 2002.
- The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jodi Magness, Eerdmans, 2002.
- The Excavations of Khirbet Qumran and Ain Feshkha, ed. J.-B. Humbert and A. Chambon, tr. Stephen J. Pfann, Göttingen, 2003. (De Vaux's field notes)
- Khirbet Qumran et 'Ain Feshkha, ed. J.-B. Humbert and J. Gunneweg, Göttingen, 2003. (Scientific analyses)
- Qumran in Context, Yizhar Hirschfeld, Hendrickson, 2004.
- The Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Archaeological Interpretations and Debates, ed. K. Galor, J.-B. Humbert and J. Zangenberg, Brill, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Some Notes on the Archaeological Context of Qumran in the Light of Recent Publications, David Stacey, [1]
- The Enigma of Qumran, Yaron Ben-Ami, [2]
- Spatial Approach to the Ruins of Khirbet Qumran at the Dead Sea, [3]
- Claims that Qumran was a pottery factory: Schiffman, Lawrence, “Origin and Early History of the Qumran Sect”, Biblical Archaeology. Volume 58, Number 1, March 1995.
- Dead Sea Scrolls theory faces new challenge - New archaeological evidence is raising more questions about the conventional interpretation linking the desolate ruins of an ancient settlement known as Qumran with the Dead Sea Scrolls.
- Ancient Latrine Fuels Debate at Qumran
- Qumran entry in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith
