Endnotes

1.

Adolfo Roitman, From Dawn to Dusk Among the Qumran Sectarians (Jerusalem: Shrine of the Book, 1997).

2.

The development of trigonometry enabled mathematicians to make precise calculations for the markings on the sundials. Crude sundials—basically a vertical object (even a tree or a person would suffice) are known from as early as 1500 B.C.E. in Egypt.

3.

The publication cited in endnote 1 indicates that this roundel was made and engraved on a lathe. This, too, is wrong. Lathes that could perform such tasks did not exist in the Hellenistic age. See Paul Craddock and Janet Lang, “Spinning, Turning, Polishing,” Journal of the Historical Metallurgy Society (1983) 17/2 pp. 79–81; Robert S. Woodbury, “The Origins of the Lathe,” Scientific American 208:4 (1963), p. 132, and Studies in the History of Machine Tools: History of the Lathe to 1850(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1972).

4.

Sharon Gibbs, Greek and Roman Sundials (New Haven and London: Yale Univ. Press, 1976).

5.

Gibbs, Sundials, p. 4.

6.

Dov Ben Layish, “A Survey of Sundials in Israel,” Sefunim 3 (1969), pp. 70–81.

7.

Benjamin Mazar, “Excavations Near the Temple Mount,” Qadmoniot 5:3–4 (1972), p. 82 (Hebrew).

8.

L.Y. Rahmani, “Depictions of Menorot on Ossuaries,” Qadmoniot 13:3–4 (1980), pp. 51–52, 114–117 (Hebrew).

9.

One found at Naukratis, Egypt, is now in the British Museum. The other was found in the 1923–1925 excavations at the Hill of Ophel, led by J.G. Duncan and R.A.S. Macalister for the Palestine Exploration Fund. Unfortunately, this interesting and important artifact could not be located either in the Israel Antiquities Authority stores or at the Palestine Exploration Fund in London.

10.

“Jouer dans L’Antiquité,” Musées de Marseille (Paris: Reunion des Musées Nationaux, 1991), pp. 125–129 and catalog nos. 174–176; Marie-Noel Bellesort, “Le Jeu de Serpent: Jeux et Jouets dans L’Antiquité et le Moyen Age,” Dossiers D’ Archéologie (1992), pp. 8–9; École du Caire (IFAO), Un Siècle de Fouilles Française en Egypte (1981), p. 22, fig. 23.

11.

The archaeological recovery of many mehen game boards in areas outside Egypt, including widely scattered houses and tombs, lends weight to our tentative identification of the find at Qumran.