Scrolls’ Scribe and Sectarian Spaces

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One of the mysteries of the approximately 900 documents known as the Dead Sea Scrolls is whether they form a single collection—most often described as an Essene library—or whether they come from several different collections (perhaps brought to different caves by refugees fleeing from the Romans). Some have proposed that as many as 500 different scribes wrote the scrolls found in 11 caves near the ruins of Qumran.¹ Now we have new evidence, which, however, only adds to the mystery.

Ada Yardeni is one of Israel’s leading paleographers. Ancient handwriting is her specialty. Her examination has revealed that one scribe copied texts found in Caves 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 11, as well as scrolls found at Masada. This tends to support the position that the Dead Sea Scrolls are a single large library. She dates these scrolls, based on the shape and form of the letters, to sometime in the late first century B.C.E. to the beginning of the first century C.E., precisely at the turn of the era.

This active scribe, who inscribed more than 50 different scrolls, wrote in handwriting that is “orderly, spacious and elegant, indicating a skilled professional and trained hand, easily recognizable thanks to its peculiar lamed [L],” to quote Yardeni.² He inscribed sectarian scrolls (often identified as Essene) as well as Biblical and other texts that do not reflect a particular Jewish sect.

Another recent study supports the archaeological identification of Qumran as a sectarian (probably Essene) settlement.³ Eyal Regev of Bar-Ilan University made a spatial analysis of the architecture of Qumran. He identified three major quarters divided internally into several different groupings of spaces with minimal connections between them. The theorists on whom Regev based his study conclude that this kind of arrangement emphasizes the “solidarity of isolation” that existed at the site and the “ritualized and conformist organizations” that lived there. Regev concludes that this “strict division into quarters and the secondary division of each quarter into different clusters attest to an ethos of social segregation, not only between the inhabitants themselves, but, more importantly, between the inhabitants and the outside world. The organization of space regulates and controls inter-action with strangers, creating a ‘distance’ between inside and out: Strangers must pass through one or more spaces before reaching the domain of inhabitants.”

Scholars have suggested that Qumran is an agricultural manor house, a villa rustica, a military fortress, an inn for travelers or a pottery production center. But none of the sites to which Qumran has been compared reflects the same kind of spatial analysis as Qumran.

Regev’s analysis of the pottery found in the excavation of Qumran also leads to the conclusion that it was a sectarian settlement. Excavator Père Roland de Vaux listed more than 2,500 vessels that were found at Qumran. Of these, 87 percent are tableware. It is true that two storage areas or pantries were found at Qumran, but even without these, 73 percent of the vessels are tableware. This extremely high percentage of tableware is unique. (Other sites Regev studied varied from 18 percent to 49 percent.)

Regev argues that this high percentage of tableware reflects unique dining practices and the social attitude of the inhabitants toward dining. The abundance of tableware points to the structuring and ritualization of meals. The room known as Locus 77 has long been identified as a dining room. Regev suggests that “We may conclude that the inhabitants of Qumran conducted ritual meals with many participants.” Locus 77 could accommodate more than 120 diners. Here again the archaeological evidence supports the view that a religious sect inhabited Qumran.