REVIEW

Abstract

Kh. Qumran was visited by western explorers during the nineteenth century, long before the famous discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls nearby. The observations of these visitors supplement the preliminary reports of Roland de Vaux, who excavated the site in the 1950s. Do their transliterations of the name of the site (e.g. 'Goumran') indicate that the present site-name is inaccurate? Probably not, because a sound something like English 'g' was used by Bedouin guides for Arabic qāf. However, the origin of the name 'Qumran' remains obscure. One solution would be to see it as the Aramaic (Syriac) word qumrā, meaning 'belt', an apt name for the wadi that runs beside the ruin.     

Revisiting Qumran Cave 1Q and its Archaeological Assemblage

Qumran Cave 1Q was the first site of Dead Sea scroll discoveries. Found and partly emptied by local Bedouin, the cave was excavated officially in 1949 and published in the series Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (Volume 1) in 1955. Contents of the cave are found in collections worldwide, and in different institutions in Jerusalem and Amman. While the scrolls are the most highly prized artefacts from this cave, in archaeological terms they are part of an assemblage that needs to be understood holistically in order to make conclusions about its character and dating. This study presents all of the known items retrieved from the cave, including those that are currently lost, in order to consider what we might know about the cave prior to its emptying and the changes to its form. It constitutes preliminary work done as part of the Leverhulme funded International Network for the Study of Dispersed Qumran Caves Artefacts and Archival Sources [IN-2015-067].     

The Aramaic Levi—Comparing the Qumran fragments with the Genizah text

ABSTRACT

Among the extra-biblical texts from Qumran we find the so-called Aramaic Levi, which can be described as a somewhat different variant of the “Testament of Levi,” a part of the larger Greek text “The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs.”

Aramaic Levi, however, was already known from the Cairo Genizah. The following article is a linguistic comparison between the Qumran text and the version from the Cairo Genizah.

As Klaus Beyer has noticed, there are a lot of non-Hasmonean spellings and words in the Genizah text, but most of Beyer’s examples are from parts of the text that are not preserved in the Qumran fragments. Comparing the two versions, we now note that the deviations are of two kinds. As expected, the Genizah text often follows a later language than Qumran. This applies in particular to orthographic features and the use of status emphaticuswithout the definite sense. But in other places the Genizah text represents a language older than Hasmonean Aramaic, which we interpret as an adaptation to Bibli-cal Aramaic and sometimes to Hebrew.     

The hydrogeochemistry of subsurface brines in and west of the Jordan–Dead Sea Transform fault

This study is based on 113 analyses of brines with Cl > 0.57 mol l^?1 (modern seawater), which were collected and analysed mostly during several decades of exploration for gas and oil in Israel. Based on critical evaluation of correlations of elements and ionic ratios and on spider patterns, six different brine events or source brines were identified in the Phanerozoic: the Triassic, Lower Cretaceous and the Mio/Pliocene brine families which were identified in boreholes Sdom‐1, Sdom Deep‐1 and Ha'on, and the Holocene Dead Sea brines. The Triassic brines are nowadays also encountered in under‐ and overlying rock units such as the Paleozoic Negev‐Yam Suf and the Jurassic Arad Groups, respectively. The southern Jordan–Dead Sea Transform (also known as the Rift) hosts the Mio‐Pliocene Sdom Deep and Sdom brine families. Brine bodies not sufficiently isolated by impervious sedimentary layers were flushed out during the Pliocene when the southern Valley drained north‐ and westwards through the Yizre'el Valley to the Mediterranean Sea. In the northern Rift Miocene to Pliocene seawater evaporated and infiltrated into the Rift sediments and into adjacent rocks. Further diluted by freshwater, it emerges as the Ha'on brine. Together with its derivatives, they form the Ha'on family. The derivatives of the Holocene Dead Sea brine family occur along the shoreline of the recent Dead Sea. Apart of all these evaporation brines, brines deriving from dissolution of evaporites locally occur in the area. The time‐bound chemical composition of paleoseawater is considered when discussing the ionic ratios of brines generated during different geological periods. Spider patterns of each brine family are compared and, where necessary, the relationship of brines to distinct families of brines is supported by inverse modelling.     

江苏镇江大港龙泉村西汉墓地发掘简报

2012年,镇江博物馆在镇江市大港镇龙泉村清理汉代土坑竖穴墓10座,出土器物类型以罐、盒、鼎、壶、瓿为主。从墓葬形制和随葬器物推测,墓葬时代应属于西汉中期。从墓葬的分布规律推测,该墓地应为一处家族墓地,家族内部又分为不同的家庭单位,墓葬之间的区别可能与墓主生活时代和社会地位的不同有关。这批墓葬的科学发掘,为研究镇江地区汉代丧葬制度提供了丰富的实物资料。     

Hemp in ancient rope and fabric from the Christmas Cave in Israel: talmudic background and DNA sequence identification

The “Christmas Cave”, a cave in the Qidron Valley near the Dead Sea and Qumran, has yielded a complex collection of plant-derived rope and fabric artifacts. Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify DNA of the samples, we estimated the sizes and determined restriction patterns and base sequences of chloroplast genes, primarily rbcL (gene for the large subunit of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase). DNA was successfully extracted from all samples, but was limited to sizes of approximately 200–300 base pairs. As expected, the DNA extracted from the samples was identified as coming primarily from flax (Linum usitatissamum L.), but two samples had a significant fraction, and all samples had at least a trace, of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) DNA. Artifacts from the Christmas Cave were thought to date from Roman times, but it was thought possible that some could be much older. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)-based ¹⁴C dating confirmed that the samples contained representatives from both the Roman and Chalcolithic periods. This paper provides a synthesis of DNA, isotope, and literary analysis to illuminate textile history at the Christmas Cave site.     

Sources of mummy bitumen in ancient Egypt and Palestine

Bitumen used as a preservative in ancient Egyptian mummies was previously thought to come only from the Dead Sea in Palestine. Other, closer sources of bitumen were investigated at Abu Durba and Gebel Zeit on the shores of Egypt’s Gulf of Suez. Bitumen from these localities and from five mummies was analysed using molecular biomarkers derived from gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. It was found that four of the mummies contained Dead Sea bitumen, and the fifth and oldest (900 bc) had bitumen from Gebel Zeit, thus providing the first evidence for the use of an indigenous source of bitumen in ancient Egypt.     

DEAD SEA ASPHALT IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MUMMIES—WHY?

The asphalt from the Dead Sea was an important item of trade in antiquity. Among its many uses, the most widespread was its export to Egypt for use in the mummification process, albeit at a relatively late date; that is, post 1000 bc . Its use became particularly important in the Ptolemaic–Roman period, as demonstrated by a war in the fourth century bc specifically to gain commercial control of this product. Although the reasons why the Egyptians wanted Dead Sea asphalt at this specific time are nowhere specified, the answer may lie in its increasing availability as a (partial) replacement for the plant resins used previously. A review of the historical literature shows that Dead Sea asphalt was used for at least two millennia as a biocidal agent in agricultural practices. It is proposed that the reasons for using Dead Sea asphalt in the mummification process are due to its dual role; first, as an external mechanical shield, when smeared on the exterior of mummy wrapping, to prevent ingress by insects, fungi, bacteria and moisture; and, second, as a biocidal agent (perhaps due to its high sulphur content), which prevented the flesh from decaying, the prime concern for the ancient Egyptians.     

RADIOCARBON DATES FROM THE OXFORD AMS SYSTEM: ARCHAEOMETRY DATELIST 34

This is the thirty‐fourth list of AMS radiocarbon determinations measured at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU). Amongst the dates obtained for archaeological sites included here are the latest series of determinations from the key sites of Proskynas (Greece), Kova?evo (Bulgaria) and Khirbet Qeiyafa (Israel), as well as others dating to the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and later periods. Submitters of the material provide comments on the significance of the results.     

Pollen analysis of core DS7-1SC (Dead Sea) showing intertwined effects of climatic change and human activities in the Late Holocene

The Dead Sea sediment holds the archives of a complex relationship between ever-changing nature and ancient civilisations. Here the detailed pollen analyses of core DS7-1SC (off-Ein-Gedi) are presented for the first time. The record covers the last 2500 years. The facies changes from halite (when no freshwater flows in the Dead Sea) to laminites (when rainfall provides sufficient inflow for the Jordan and subsidiary rivers) a couple of times through the record. The pollen diagram (supported by the facies change) shows a wetter Roman-Byzantine period, which allowed intensive arboriculture and a wetter period at the end of the XIXth and beginning of the XXth centuries, the latter in good relation with historical and instrumental data. Based on radiocarbon chronologies on several pollen diagrams along the western Dead Sea shore, the transition to drier climates and the transition to pastoralism are suggested to take place between a few decades before the Islamic period and close to this transition.     

Two Ancient Wooden Anchors from Ein Gedi, on the Dead Sea, Israel

Two ancient wooden anchors with ropes, dating to different periods, were found on the western shore of the Dead Sea. The one-armed anchor was dated by 14C to the Late Iron Age—Persian Period, and the second anchor to the Roman Period. The saline water of the Dead Sea preserved the wood and ropes, but corroded almost all the metal parts. A thin black crust of lead and a green crust of copper are the only remains of the collar of the Roman anchor. The finds were made from local tree species and were probably made locally: the one-armed anchor from Acacia, the Roman one from Christ-thorn, and both ropes of date-palm.
© 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

NAḤAL ZERED IN THE BIBLE AND THE BARAITA DE-TEḤUMIN

Abstract

As a result of a mistaken interpretation of the Madaba map, biblical Na?al Zered is often identified in the scholarship as Wādi al-?sā, which marks the boundary between Moab and Edom southeast of the Dead Sea. In reality, the brook of Zered does not appear on the Madaba map and the sole documentary evidence available for its identification is the Bible, which situates Na?al Zered near Na?al Arnon. The author proposes Wādi Nkheile, which spills into the Arnon from the southeast, as the most likely candidate for the biblical Zered. This identification perhaps also sheds light on the conflicting biblical sources regarding the question of whether or not the Moabites allowed the Israelites to pass through their territory en route to Canaan. In the postbiblical era Na?al Zered appears in the boundaries baraita (baraita de-te?umin) as part of the eastern border of the land of Israel and the article demonstrates that the identification of Na?al Zered as Wādi Nkheile is consistent with the geographical logic of the baraita.     

About two seal-impressed jars from Tell Abraq (Emirate of Umm al-Quwain). New evidence for intercultural networks in the lower Arabian Gulf in the late 2nd – beginning of the 1st millennium BC

Ongoing excavations at Tell Abraq (Emirate of Umm al-Quwain, U.A.E.) are revealing new aspects of this multiperiod site, which was occupied from c. 2500 BC to 300 AD. Together with substantial architecture dated to the 2nd and 1st millennia BC, relevant assemblages of archaeological materials are being collected and dated to different phases of the site’s life. Among this material, exceptional is the discovery of two jars bearing the impression of two different cylinder seals, which will be presented here. Seal impressions on any media are extremely rare in the whole of south-eastern Arabia and strongly indicate a foreign provenance for the jars. Their iconographic study, the fabric and morphological parallels for the jars, and probable chronology will be discussed, as this can highlight transmarine connections during the late 2nd-first half of the 1st millennium BC, as well as provide new data to address chronological issues in south-eastern Iran itself.     

A biblical Midrash on David and Goliath

ABSTRACT

Melchizedek appears in Genesis as a non-Israeli priest recog-nized by Abraham. The Rabbis assumed he gave the priesthood to Abraham who in turn gave it to his great grandson Levi, the father of Aaron, the first Jewish high Priest. In the Dead Sea Scrolls Melchizedek appears as a celestial high priest and eschatological warrior. This is consistent with the later author of the Letter to the Hebrews. Both he and Jesus himself were undoubtedly aware of these legends.     

Dating the A Cemetery at Kish: A Reconsideration

Abstract

The site of ancient Kish consists of a series of mounds about eight miles east of Babylon in the flood plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. On several of the eastern mounds extensive remains of the Sumerian (Early Dynastic = ED) period in the early 3rd millenium B.C. were excavated in the 1920s. Among these remains was a cemetery in which were found many examples of a distinctive kind of pottery, the so-called “goddess-handled jars,” which have come to be associated with the last phase of the period and thus to serve as a criterion for dating sites where these occur.

It will be argued here that such jars were actually manufactured over a longer span of time within the Early Dynastic period and that they are therefore a less precise instrument for dating than has been believed. In my view their absence from some sites is to be explained not by chronology but by regional differences. If this argument is correct, then the dating of a number of Early Dynastic sites will have to be re-examined with greater attention to regional considerations that have often been overlooked in the past.     

The canopic jars of Rameses II: real use revealed by molecular study of organic residues

Four blue-glazed faience jars, on exhibition in the Louvre Museum, are referred to as the canopic jars of Rameses II. Their recent typological re-examination rendered this original assignment questionable. In order to clearly determine their use, a study of two successive organic residues from the canopic jars, using molecular biomarkers analysed by GC-MS and LC-MS and absolute dating by ¹⁴C, was initiated. The results revealed that these two materials were not contemporary to the reign of Rameses II. The first one, scraped from the interior face of one jar, was identified as an unguent made of coniferous oil and animal fat and dated from the Third Intermediate Period. The second one, originally stored with glued linen inside one jar, is likely an embalming substance, made of pure vegetable resin (Pistacia) and dated from the Ptolemaic Period. These results clarify a controversy which has been lasting over a century. The famous blue-glazed faience jars are not the canopic jars of Rameses II but are confirmed as situlae which were reused at least two times: first to store unguents during the Intermediate Period and later to store embalming packages of an unknown person during the Ptolemaic period.