The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

• Author: Herr, Larry G.
• Position: Book Review

The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls. By JODI MAGNESS. Grand Rapids, Mich.: WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING CO., 2002. Pp. xlvi + 238, illus. $26.

In this book, Jodi Magness lends her considerable energies and balanced judgment to what have recently become vexing issues in Qumran studies. When I began reading the book I did not think it could teach me, an archaeologist, very much that was new. Indeed, the volume is intended for informed laypeople or college and seminary students and not for the specialist. But I was pleasantly surprised. With considerable skill Magness delves into archaeology, textual studies, and halakha to create for us a holistic world of the ancient people of Qumran. Thankfully, she proposes no new theory about what the site was or who lived and worked there, but brings a wide range of detail to bear in the discussion of the issue.

After describing the background of Qumran archaeology and its associated issues in chapter 1, she offers one of the best concise discussions I have read about what archaeologists do and how they do it. She does this, moreover, in a manner that allows the reader to learn and value good method and to recognize bad. She treats the varying interpretations of Qumran (villa rustica, military fortress, specialized sectarian

domicile, sectarian ceremonial center) with respect and clarity.

Chapter 2, which tells the story of the Qumran area, the discovery of the scrolls, and the exploration of the region and site of Qumran, deals with content that most people know about from other books. However, even here new details emerge to give pleasure. On p. 27, Magness mentions that the first person able to locate Cave 1 after the 1948 war was one Akkash el-Zebn of the Arab Legion. It so happens that this influential member of the Beni Sakhr tribe in central Jordan, now a retired military officer and international diplomat, was the owner of Tal Jalul (about 5 km east of Madaba) when our Madaba Plains Project began to excavate there in 1992. His memory of the discovery of Cave 1 as a young man must have been behind his hospitable acceptance of us (he treated us to a mensef at his home near Jalul), his daughter's academic interest in archaeology, and his very generous gift of Tal Jalul to the government of Jordan so that archaeological work may proceed unhindered.

After a short review of the scrolls in chapter 3, Magness ponders the question of whether the inhabitants at Qumran were Essenes or not. She...