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1993-07-27
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THE QUMRAN COMMUNITY
Like the scrolls themselves, the nature of the Qumran
settlement has aroused much debate and differing opinions. Located
on a barren terrace between the limestone cliffs of the Judean
desert and the maritime bed along the Dead Sea, the Qumran site was
excavated by Pere Roland de Vaux, a French Dominican, as part of
his effort to find the habitation of those who deposited the
scrolls in the nearby caves. The excavations uncovered a complex
of structures, 262 by 328 feet which de Vaux suggested were
communal in nature. In de Vaux's view the site was the wilderness
retreat of the Essenes, a separatist Jewish sect of the Second
Temple Period, a portion of whom had formed an ascetic monastic
community. According to de Vaux, the sectarians inhabited
neighboring locations, most likely caves, tents, and solid
structures, but depended on the center for communal facilities such
as stores of food and water.
Following de Vaux's interpretation and citing ancient
historians as well as the nature of some scroll texts for
substantiation, many scholars believe the Essene community wrote,
copied, or collected the scrolls at Qumran and deposited them in
the caves of the adjacent hills. Others dispute this
interpretation, claiming either that the scroll sect was Sadducean
in nature; that the site was no monastery but rather a Roman
fortress or a winter villa; that the Qumran site has little if
anything to do with the scrolls; or that the evidence available
does not support a single definitive answer.
Whatever the nature of the habitation, archaeological and
historical evidence indicates that the excavated settlement was
founded in the second half of the second century B.C.E., during the
time of the Maccabees, a priestly Jewish family which ruled Judea
in the second and first centuries B.C.E. A hiatus in the
occupation of the site is linked to evidence of a huge earthquake.
Qumran was abandoned about the time of the Roman incursion of 68
C.E., two years before the collapse of Jewish self-government in
Judea and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E.
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deadsea.scrolls.exhibit rev. 6/18/93 (kde)