Warriors Once Occupied Dead Sea Scrolls Site

Live Science ^ | 7-12-07 | Heather Whipps

[Renfield]

Fierce warriors once occupied the famous complex where the Dead Sea Scrolls were written, new research suggests.

Ruins of the Qumran site—in the present-day West Bank—resemble a monastery, but scholars have argued over its uses before the religious sect who penned the scrolls moved in somewhere between 130 and 100 B.C.

Using the world's first virtual 3-D reconstruction of the site, historians recently found evidence of a fortress that was later converted into its more peaceful, pious function....

[Renfield]

I just can't get over the name "Heather Whipps". It sounds like the stage name of some porno actress.

[Renfield]

Ping

[JohnEBoy]

Sounds like an interesting article when I get around to reading it ... a California pro basketball team was once residing in a part of the Middle East? Who knew?

[Gideon T. Reader]

I am slightly deslexic.
I thought it was “Weather Hipps”.
Also a bondage lady.

[blam]

Interesting, thanks.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Renfield.

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[Charles Gadda]

This article is an outrageous distortion

Schniedewind and his UCLA colleagues have simply lifted Qumran’s role as a fortress from work by a series of scholars and presented it as their own “discovery.” Heather Whipps has really been taken for a ride—if she had consulted with any serious Qumran specialist she would have realized what is going on.

(1) Dr. Yizhar Hirschfeld’s book Qumran in Context (2004) explains at length that the site was originally a fortress (see especially Chapter 3, pp. 49-182). The book provides two technically correct, original drawings of the tower and rectangular building attached to it, first as they existed during the Hasmonean period (p. 86) and then with a new extension of the Herodian period (p. 113). Hirschfeld, a professional archaeologist, did not need to use “virtual 3-D reconstruction” to do his work and reveal that Qumran was built as a fortress.

(2) The leaders of the official Israel Antiquities Authority Qumran team, Dr. Yitzhak Magen and Dr. Yuval Peleg, also clearly state that Qumran was a Hasmonean “military post responsible for the security of the Dead Sea shore” (See their report in The Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Archaeological Interpretations and Debates [1996], pp. 102 ff.).

(3) Dr. Norman Golb of the University of Chicago has been arguing that Qumran was a fortress since at least 1980.

So I ask: why are these traditional Dead Sea Scrolls scholars at UCLA stepping in now and trying to steal the credit due to their opponents, who have refuted fifty years of research?

Schniedewind’s outrageous “virtual reality” film, and his sensationalist press campaign surrounding it, should be seen in context. Apparently this devout believer in the Qumran-Essene theory has decided to rehash the findings of several prominent Israeli archaeologists and present them as his own “discovery,” without explaining that his true aim is to reconcile those findings with the Qumran-Essene theory that these same Israeli archaeologists, following Golb, have rejected.

For further details, see my pieces http://www.nowpublic.com/dead_sea_scrolls_exhibit_misleads_public
and
http://www.nowpublic.com/dead_sea_scrolls_san_diego_natural_history_museum_update
and the references provided in them.

[Charles Gadda]

P.s. I forgot to say one basic thing:

None of the key Israeli archaeologists of the past decade who have investigated the two stages of Qumran construction (Hirschfeld, Magen, Peleg) have concluded or suggested that in the second stage any kind of sect, let alone “pious monks,” lived there or wrote scrolls there. Probably due to no fault of her own, Ms. Whipps fails to mention this crucial fact in her article.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 07/15/2007. Just an update. Thanks Renfield.

Essene/Qumran debate:

• The Mystery of the Copper Scroll [2014]
• Who were the Essenes? [2013]
• Dead Sea Scrolls and Masada Scrolls Written by Same Scribe [2012]
• Cracking the code (Copper Scroll) [2009]
• Scholar Shocker: Dead Sea Scrolls 'Authors' Never Existed [2009]
• Scholar: The Essenes, Dead Sea Scroll 'authors,' never existed [2009]
• Scholar: The Essenes, Dead Sea Scroll 'authors,' never existed [2009]
• Qumran scrolls view challenged (Dead Sea Scrolls) [2007]
• Archaeologists Challenge Link Between Dead Sea Scrolls and Ancient Sect [2006]
• Archaeologists Claim Essenes Never wrote Dead Sea Scrolls [2004]
• Mystery of Dead Sea Scroll unravels [2002]
• Mystery Of Dead Sea Scrolls Unravels [2002]

• Ancient toilet may be new evidence of Jewish sect [2007]
• 2,000-year-old toilet may solve an ancient mystery [2007]
• The Hidden Latrines of The Essenes [2006]
• Toilet Evidence Links Dead Sea Scrolls To Sect (Essenes) [2006]
• Latrines of the Essenes? [2006]

• Challenging History: The Dead Sea Scrolls [2015]
• Challenging History: The Dead Sea Scrolls [2007]
• The Chinese connection (to the Dead Sea Scrolls) [2006]

[dsc]

So, no Essenes? How jarring.

Where did the scrolls come from, then?

[Redcitizen]

It came from a wandering group of Mexican monks. They were called the Esé.

[dsc]

“It came from a wandering group of Mexican monks. They were called the Esé.”

Now, that’s funny, right there. I don’t care who you are.

For some reason, though, I don’t feel any smarter.

[SunkenCiv]

Jarring, heh, weren't they found in jars? Each time this comes up there's a mile or so of sectarian turmoil typed into the FR database, so, no thanks. The links should be sufficient.