Reassessing the Judean Desert Caves: Libraries, Archives, Genizas and Hiding Places

Abstract

In December 1952, five years after the discovery of Qumran cave 1, Roland de Vaux connected its manuscript remains to the nearby site of Khirbet Qumran when he found one of the unique cylindrical jars, typical of cave 1Q, embedded in the floor of the site. The power of this suggestion was such that, from that point on, as each successive Judean Desert cave containing first-century scrolls was discovered, they, too, were assumed to have originated from the site of Qumran. Even the scrolls discovered at Masada were thought to have arrived there by the hands of Essene refugees. Other researchers have since proposed that certain teachings within the scrolls of Qumran’s caves provide evidence for a sect that does not match that of the Essenes described by first-century writers such as Josephus, Philo and Pliny. These researchers prefer to call this group ‘the Qumran Community’, ‘the Covenanters’, ‘the Yahad ’ or simply ‘sectarians’. The problem is that no single title sufficiently covers the doctrines presented in the scrolls, primarily since there is a clear diversity in doctrine among these scrolls. 1 In this article, I would like to present a challenge to this monolithic approach to the understanding of the caves and their scroll collections. This reassessment will be based on a close examination of the material culture of the caves (including ceramics and fabrics) and the palaeographic dating of the scroll collections in individual caves. While the results of this examination are preliminary, it is hoped that such an exercise will open the study of the Dead Sea scrolls on a new level, by allowing each cave to tell its own, nuanced story, rather than imposing upon it a priori an ‘Essene hypothesis’ or any other all-encompassing theory. Of the numerous manuscript collections that have been found in the Judean Desert, not one has been found in its original library or archive room, with the exception of caves 4Q and 5Q, which may have served as genizas for the community (see below). The contents of the libraries at Kh. Qumran were evacuated, perhaps on sundry occasions, as refugees fled with the manuscripts and hid them in caves for safekeeping. Due to the quality Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society 2007 Volume 25

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