Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The Leverhulme-funded Network for the Study of Dispersed Qumran \nCave Artefacts and Archival Sources (DQCAAS) commissioned the scientific \ntesting of a mysterious deposit found inside a Qumran-type jar lid, now in a \nprivate collection. Along with a cylindrical jar, this lid was purchased in 1963 \nby John Allegro from the antiquities dealer Kando in Bethlehem, who was told \nthat the objects came from a cave in the immediate Qumran area. The time of \nsale has been carefully verified through records documenting the acquisition of \nthe objects, and these are presented here as an example of good practice when \ndealing with unprovenanced artefacts. In terms of the find spot, the Bedouin \ntestimony coheres with material evidence that Bedouin continued clandestine \nexcavations in caves close to the site of Qumran through the early 1960s. The \nprecise find spot cannot be determined exactly, but both the jar and lid have \na condition that would match what we would expect in a cave environment, \nand their forms are the same as other Qumran jars and lids, which are of a \nclass not found anywhere else. John Allegro believed that the hardened residue \nwas “bat dung,” but this was never verified scientifically. A sample of the lid \ndeposit was extracted and sent for analysis at Quest (Quarternary Scientific), \nwithin the School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science at \nthe University of Reading, UK. The results have concluded that the unknown \nmaterial likely derives from a member of the sedge (Cyperaceae) family, such \nas the papyrus sedge, which is not local to the Dead Sea area, and therefore \nprobably comes from one or more degraded papyrus scrolls. The new results \nwould suggest that a jar in a Qumran cave fell over and its papyrus contents \nspilled into the detached lid, then decomposed over the centuries. This supports \nthe theory that, near Qumran, other caves than those designated as “scroll \ncaves” did once contain manuscripts in antiquity.
Source: OAR@UM (University of Malta)
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: Leverhulme Trust, University of Reading
OpenAlex ID: W6907576346
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