Qumran
Qumran is located
on the northwestern shore of the Dead
Sea, several kilometers south of Jericho.
In 1947, in a cave just south
of Qumran, Bedouins found the first Dead
Sea scrolls. Following this discovery,
Qumran was excavated by the Dominican Father
R. de Vaux in the years 1951-56. A complex
of buildings, extending over an area of 100
x 80 m. was uncovered, dating to the Second
Temple period.
The location of the site
and its plan, the scrolls found in the vicinity
and the simple ceramic vessels of the inhabitants,
bear witness in de Vaux's view, to a settlement
of the Essene sect. We also know of the presence of the
Essenes in the Judean Desert and near the
Dead Sea from the writings of Pliny the Elder.
(Naturalis Historia V, 17)
The
view of Qumran as an Essene center is opposed
by those who propose that the site was a villa,
an inn or a fortress. These views are not
supported by archeological evidence, and most
scholars accept de Vaux's interpretation.
Recently, an ostracon (a potsherd with writing)
with several lines of Hebrew script, was found
at Qumran. It is a contract in which a man
named Honi bestows his possessions, including
a building, an olive and a fig orchard, to
a group called yahad (Hebrew, together).
If this reading is correct, it provides evidence
for identifying the sect that inhabited Qumran,
and the name by which members of the group
designated themselves. The term occurs in
other manuscripts of the Essenes.
Settlement at Qumran
At the end of the First
Temple period (8th-7th centuries BCE),
a first settlement was established at the
site. Sparse remains of a small, fortified
farmhouse or Judahite fort were found. The
site was identified by some as Secacah, or
the City of Salt, two of the six cities in
the desert territory of Judah. (Joshua
15:61-62)
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Settlement at Qumran was renewed at the end
of the 2nd century BCE, probably during the
reign of the Hasmonean King John Hyrcanus I, when the existing structure
was restored and enlarged. Then, at the beginning
of the 1st century BCE, during the reign of
Alexander Jannaeus, renewed building determined
the plan of the site until its destruction.
An aqueduct was built from a cliff above Wadi
Qumran several hundred meters east of the
site. Winter floodwaters were collected behind
a dam at the foot of the cliff and from there
flowed in the aqueduct to Qumran and filled
the numerous cisterns and mikva'ot (ritual
baths) there. The supply of water was essential
to a permanent settlement at Qumran, where
summer temperatures in this desert region
are extremely high.
The plan of Qumran is unique, not at all
similar to other contemporary settlements,
with its many large halls, undoubtedly serving
public functions, and the relatively small
number of living quarters. The main entrance
to the settlement was in the north, at the
foot of a watchtower. The walls of the buildings
were made of stones gathered at the foot of
the cliff and plastered with thick, white-gray
plaster. The windows and doorposts were built
of well-trimmed stones and the roofs, as was
common in that period, were constructed of
wooden beams, straw and plaster.
The
main structure at Qumran had several rooms,
some obviously two stories high, arranged
around a central courtyard. In the northwestern
corner was a square watchtower with particularly
thick walls that rose above the rest of the
settlement. The tower served as a lookout
and warning post and protected the settlement
against raids by desert tribes. A room with
benches built along its walls served as a
meeting-place for the members of the community
and probably as a place for Torah (Bible) study. Additional building complexes,
south and east of the main building contained
long halls, rooms and ritual baths. One of
the large halls was for meetings and served
as a refectory. In a storage room and a kitchen
next to it, neat piles of hundreds of pottery
vessels and a large number of small food bowls
were found. A workshop, in which pottery vessels
for use of the community were produced, was
discovered in the southeastern part of the
site. The workshop included a basin for preparing
the clay, a potters wheel made of stone and
two round kilns for firing.
A large number of mikva'ot (ritual baths)
was found throughout the site. Excavated into
the marl soil, they were waterproofed with
thick, gray hydraulic plaster. The broad staircase
leading to the bottom was at times divided
down the middle by a low (20 cm.-high) wall,
which separated those descending for immersion
from those leaving after purification. The
ritual baths were fed by water from the aqueduct.
Mikva'ot similar to those at Qumran were typical
of public and private buildings in Jerusalem
and elsewhere in the Second Temple period.
The Mishnah (Masekhet Mikva'ot) notes the importance
of immersion in water for spiritual purification
and lists the requirements for such ritual
baths. The mikva'ot at Qumran were built according
to all these requirements. Unusual at Qumran
is the large number of these installations
and the size of some of them, relative to
the settlement. The latter probably served
the members of the community for communal
immersion, a central part in their daily rituals.
An earthquake severely damaged the buildings
and mikva'ot of Qumran in 31 BCE. Excavations
revealed cracks in walls and a thick layer
of ash from a fire that had raged. The earthquake
was mentioned by Josephus.
(Antiquities 15, 121 ff.; Wars I, 370 ff.)
The
settlement at Qumran was subsequently abandoned,
until the beginning of the 1st century CE,
when members of the community returned and
settled there once more. They restored the
earlier structures and, with various additions
and modifications, used them. In the main
building was a long room, in which remains
of benches, or low tables, made of mud and
plastered on the outside, as well as small
clay inkwells were found. According to the
excavator, these finds indicate that the room
was a scriptorium, where the settlement's
scribes copied the holy writings and the laws
governing the community.
Perhaps only a few dozen of the leaders of
the community lived permanently at Qumran.
Most of the members of the sect, probably
totaling several thousand, lived in villages
and cities. A large Essene community certainly
lived in Jerusalem (according to Josephus,
the name of the gate in the southern wall
of Jerusalem, at Mt. Zion, was called the
Essenes' Gate). For certain periods of time,
members of the sect lived in the desert near
Qumran and during holidays and community events,
many more arrived and lived in tents, huts
and the caves nearby. In a survey and excavations
conducted recently in the caves on the marl
slopes north of the site, pottery vessels
were found, indicating the use of the caves
as dwellings. Stone circles nearby also indicate
a tent encampment.
The buildings at Qumran were blocked in
the east by a wall of large stones. Beyond
it, the marl terraces extend several hundred
meters before ending in a cliff. On this marl
surface was a large cemetery with over 1,000
graves in north-south oriented rows. A few
were excavated, revealing the simplest of
individual graves dug into the marl and covered
with a pile of stones. Most of those buried
weremales, though at the edge of the cemetery
there were also graves of females and children.
The settlement at Qumran was destroyed during
the Jewish War against Rome in 68 CE, and
it was never resettled.
The Dead
Sea Scrolls
Scrolls and other objects from the Second
Temple period were found in several caves
near Qumran, both in natural caves in the
hard limestone cliffs west of the site and
in caves cut into the marl cliffs near Qumran.
When the Roman army approached, the inhabitants
of Qumran fled to the caves and hid their
documents in them. The dry climate of the
Dead Sea region presethese manuscripts, written
on parchment, for 2000 years.
In
Cave No. 4, in the marl cliff south of the
site, the excavators found only 15,000 small
fragments of an estimated 600 different manuscripts.
Individuals in ancient times or modern Bedouin
may have removed scrolls from this cave, leaving
only scraps. This cave was used by the Essenes
as a geniza, a place for keeping worn-out
sacred writings.
In the 1950s and 1960s, many caves in the
canyons of the Judean Desert along the Dead
Sea were surveyed and excavated. The documents
found there, and in the caves around Qumran,
include copies of all of the books of the Bible (except for the Scroll
of Esther). The most famous of these is
the complete scroll of Isaiah,
which was written sometime between the 2nd
century BCE and the destruction of the site
in 68 CE. This date was recently confirmed
by a radiocarbon examination of a sample of
the parchment of the scroll. The books of
the Qumran library are regarded as the oldest
existing copies of the books of the Bible.
Writings of the Essene sect, whose spiritual
center was located here in the 200 years preceding
the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple,
were also found in the caves near Qumran.
Sources: Israeli
Foreign Ministry;Encyclopaedia
Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group.
All Rights Reserved. Photos courtesy of Jack
Hazut |
