Overview

Bibliography

Situated among the barren cliffs of the Judean desert overlooking the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, Khirbet Qumran seems less impressive than the forbidding environs surrounding it. The grey and beige limestone and dolomite outcroppings resemble a moonscape rising above a lifeless, hazy blue, inland sea, which at 400 meters below sea level is the lowest point on the face of the earth. But with the chance discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the nearby caves over 60 years ago, Qumran has become one of the most significant and popular archaeological sites in the world.

The ruins here were systematically excavated during the 1950s by Roland de Vaux, a French Dominican priest, who associated the site with the Second Temple Period sect known as the Essenes. Although much of de Vaux's interpretation of Qumran is still generally accepted, the significance of Qumran and the Scrolls for early Jewish and early Christian understanding has generated considerable scholarly controversy, spilling over into popular circles as well. Unfortunately, de Vaux's excavations have never been fully published. Parts of the site were re-excavated from 1993-2004 by Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg, who argue that Qumran was primarily a workshop for a pottery guild. Other interpretations of the site include a country villa, estate, and military outpost, but the other arguments, perhaps best formulated by Jodi Magness, largely uphold the traditional Essene-Qumran hypothesis heralded by de Vaux.

The archaeological strata uncovered at the site, as illustrated in the site plan, date to the following periods:

	Roman Period, after 68 CE
	Post-Herodian Additions
	Herodian Period
	Hasmonean Period