Evidence
The first
cave discovered, Cave 1, was a ½-mile north of the Qumran site.
You will recall from the introductory reading in VanderKam and
Schiffman that the Bedouin found several jars in this cave, and
one of them had three intact scrolls in it. Four other scrolls were
later removed from this cave. In general, at least six of thse seven
scrolls were beautifully preserved. In fact, a few had been wrapped
in linen sleeves for further protection.
One scholar,
E. L. Sukenik, suggested that the Cave was a genizah or storeroom
for old, worn-out scrolls (it is Jewish tradition not to destroy such
unuseable sacred scrolls, but to store them).
Question
#1. Based on what you know of the Cave 1 scrolls their state
and manner of preservation do you agree or disagree with Sukenik?
Is there any other evidence you would need in order to decide?
Some of the scrolls that were the best-preserved and most important
for the group who hid them were found in caves farthest from the compound.
This cliff is the one in which Caves 1-2 are located. It lies about
½-mile north of the compound, while Caves 3 and 11 are farther
north still.
Some scholars
believe that the finds in these caves were deposited by different groups
at different times, rather than by a single group living at the Khirbet
Qumran site to the south. The finds in these caves are somewhat different
from what one finds nearer Qumran; for example, the single copy of the
Copper Scroll (a list of buried temple donations and implements inscribed
on a thin sheet of copper) was found in the northernmost Cave 3.
Question
#2. Using Garcí Martínez's Table of Contents
(DSST, pp. vi-xvii), determine whether any given manuscripts
have been found in multiple caves. Note particularly those times when
a manuscript was found in a far-off cave (1-3, 11) and in a cave
nearer to Qumran (4-10). In your write-up, choose one of the two positions:
(1) that the scrolls were written and deposited by different groups,
or (2) that they were written and deposited by the same group. Then
make a case for your position, including evidence from the Table of
Contents and your "take" on whether the distance of ½-1 mile would
be significant.
Finally, we turn to the seven caves closest to the Qumran site (caves
4-10). In this photograph, taken from the NW corner of the compound,
the cliff along the right edge of the picture is the cliff in which
Caves 4-5 were located. Glance at the list of Qumran manuscripts in
García Martínez's appendix (DSST pp. 467-519).
Get an ballpark sense for how many of the 800+ manuscripts found at
Qumran were found in Caves 4-5, and 4-10, compared to the farther caves.
The proximity
of these caves to the Qumran compound has not deterred some scholars
from arguing that the scrolls have nothing to do with the archaeological
evidence of the compound. Norman
Golb, is perhaps the most well-known proponent of the view that
refugees from the Jerusalem Temple fled Jerusalem in the First Jewish
Revolt when Jerusalem came under attack and its Temple was destroyed
(70 C.E.). He contends that they took the scrolls from
the Temple library and deposited them here, in the Judean wilderness.
He notes that no scroll fragments were found in the Qumran compound,
which would be strange for a group that had over 800 manuscripts in
the nearby caves.
There is, however, evidence from the archaeological compound that matches
evidence from the caves.
First,
while scrolls were indeed not present in the compound, quite a lot of
pottery was, and it matches pottery found in the caves, such as the
scroll jars themselves. The match is pretty comprehensive; pottery in
the caves and the compound is similar in composition, style and dating,
and lack of decoration. (Pottery styles, like handwriting by professional
scribes, changes slowly over time in noticeable ways that have been
tracked by archaeologists. You can therefore date a pot to a rough time-frame
by its style, just as you can date handwriting to a rough time-frame
by its features.)
Second,
the scroll dates range, on the basis of writing analysis (paleography)
and Carbon-14 tests, from 250 B.C.E. to 68/70 C.E.
Parts of the compound date before this period, and we have evidence
of Roman occupation after the period, but the evidence of pottery, coins,
and some documents inscribed on pottery in the compound suggest that
the heaviest period of occupation at the site was c.140 B.C.E.
to 68 C.E.
Question
#3. Based on the evidence adduced so far, would you argue with or
against Golb? State your position, and then discuss the evidence. Is
there other information you would need in order to make your case more
convincingly?
The first question
that must be asked is whether the caves and the ruins of the compound are
connected. Did the same people who occupied the compound store or hide the
scrolls in the caves?
