Qumran And The Dead Sea Scrolls Analysis

Reading through Jodi Magness’ The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, I could not help but think how different our knowledge would be had she actually worked directly with Roland De Vaux and how valuable he might have found her thinking as they were unearthing Qumran. Magness takes the stuffiness and statistics out of the equation and gives us a look at the community at Qumran with fresh eyes. In her description of how archaeologists actually work, it was such a shame to learn how much information is lost in the actual excavation process. It was also interesting to note the different methods used to date their findings. Of note was her reluctance to pigeonhole the Qumran site as either a sectarian settlement or a villa/fortress. …show more content…
While generally accepted that Qumran was a community of celibate men and that women were not well thought of, there is still the question of how the community kept going. According to Josephus, “They [men] disdain marriage for themselves, but adopt the children [I am assuming boys] of others at a tender age in order to instruct them; they regard them as belonging to them by kinship, and condition them to conform to their own customs.” (p164) Magness provides several texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls that contain language regarding marriage, sexual relations, childbirth and purity laws relevant to women (Messianic Rule, War Scroll, Temple Scroll)(p167), but none of those texts makes it clear that women actually resided at Qumran. Relying strictly on archaeological evidence, it was noted that several female skeletons were found in the cemetery at Qumran, away from where the men were buried. Very few objects were found to support anything but a very minimal presence of women at or near Qumran, but there were combs, spindles and a few beads. The best we could learn was that families did not reside at