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STAFF OFFICER OF ARCHAEOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF THE CIVIL ADMINISTRATION IN JUDEA AND SAMARIA

POT CEMETERY. While excavating the Qumran cemetery, archaeologists found two graves that, though nearly identical to the graves containing human burials, were used to bury more than a dozen storage jars. The jars were carefully sealed and placed upright in the bottom of the tombs, but were also pierced with small holes that would have rendered them useless as containers. This unusual treatment suggests the jar burials were ritual or sacred deposits intentionally left by Qumran’s inhabitants.