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 between 150 and 130 BC 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
Since the discovery in the middle of the 20th century of almost 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, a large cistern, a large dining or assembly room, an alleged scriptorium, and a guard tower.
Most scholars consider it to have been home to a Jewish sect, often said to be 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, if women are buried there in great numbers. It would tell what the occupants of the settlement were like and who lived there; but under Jewish law excavating cemeteries is forbidden.
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.
More recently the theory of Qumran being a religious settlement has garnered much critique by some archaeologists and is not considered very likely anymore by a group of Israeli and American scholars. According to them, the ruins at Qumran were most probably a merchant outpost or a pottery factory. However, European archaeologists who have carried out studies at the ruins do not agree either with the merchant outpost or the present pottery workshop theory. Belgian scholars have suggested that the settlement served as a Roman villa, but the French who originally excavated the site still insist that the settlement served as an Essene site. A survey and spatial studies carried out by Finnish and British archaeologists in the ruins 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 scientific isprs organisation website) of the orientations of the settlement and the graves, shows that both the settlement and the graves belonged to an intentional planning scheme and are connected to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Essenes. 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 number of Jewish residents, and Qumran area was under the rule of the Ptolemies and Seleucids before the Roman occupation.
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 Qumrna did not live in a vacuum in the Graeco-Roman period. The ritual baths at Qumran are a typical feature for Jewish and Oriental mystery cults of the period. According to the Israeli scholars Magen and Peleg, the clay found in the baths was used for pottery factory facilities, but due to the evidence put forward by natural scientists, such as an Israeli scholar C. Klein, Qumran has been under flooding that has caused aragonite crusting on the walls of the buildings as well as layers of clay accumulation in the structures.
[edit] See also
- Temple in Jerusalem: section on Possible Temple at Qumran under Attempts at Rebuilding
[edit] External links
- Spatial Approach to the Ruins of Khirbet Qumran at the Dead Sea, [1]
- 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.ca:Qumran
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