Inside BAR

004

“Gas, Food and Lodging”—or the ancient equivalent—could have been plastered on billboards outside the Qumran complex in the Judean Desert. The site was neither monastery, fortress, villa, nor home to scroll-writing Essene scribes, as many scholars have claimed: Rather, suggest authors Alan Crown and Lena Cansdale, it was an ancient hostelry, where traders, their camels and pack-asses laden with frankincense and myrrh from the east, could rest and dine on their way to and from Jerusalem. Qumran’s location on a critical trade route between the Dead Sea and Jerusalem would have made it particularly attractive to traders, write Crown and Cansdale. In “Qumran—Was It an Essene Settlement?” they dismiss the common identification of the site, arguing that ancient historical texts, archaeological evidence from Qumran and information contained in the Dead Sea. Scrolls all disprove the theory that it was an Essene community.

Crown heads the department of Semitic studies at the University of Sydney, Australia, where he received his Ph.D. in 1967. Originally trained in geography, Crown wrote his earliest scholarly work (still used today) on paleo-climatology. He recently received a grant for a critical edition of the Samaritan pentateuch. Crown is the author of an article in BAR’s sister magazine, Bible Review, on “The Abisha Scroll—3,000 Years Old?” BR 07:05.

A student of Crown’s, Cansdale is nearing completion of her doctoral thesis on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumran and the Essenes. Cansdale began her university studies in 1983, after retiring from a 35-year career in advertising. She enjoys swimming and sailing, and has used her expertise in scuba-diving to investigate Herod’s harbor at Caesarea. Cansdale also participated in digs closer to home—searching for aboriginal artifacts and extinct megafauna remains in western New South Wales.

Not everyone will agree with Crown and Cansdale over their identification of Qumran as a commercial waystation. Inkwells from the site provide pieces of crucial evidence, and now another inkwell from Qumran has come to light. While Crown and Cansdale argue that the inkwells were used in taking orders and maintaining records, others view them as evidence that Qumran was home to prolific writers—perhaps Essene scribes. Discovered in about 1950 but not published until today, the diminutive, but unusually beautiful, bronze pot brings the tally of Qumran inkwells to five, writes Stephen Goranson in “Qumran—A Hub of Scribal Activity?” Adding to the mystery surrounding these seemingly simple pots, no comparable number has been discovered during excavations of several known centers of writing. Why were there so many at Qumran?

Goranson received his Ph.D. from Duke University and is a specialist in archaeology, Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. His article, “Qumran—the Evidence of the Inkwells,” BAR 19:06, appeared in the Fragments column of BAR, November/December 1993.

Mithraism, a religion that competed with Christianity for adherents throughout the Roman Empire, has remained a mystery to scholars since its demise in the early fifth century A.D. Its rites and beliefs were kept strictly secret, passed on verbally to initiates—men exclusively—who held their meetings in underground caves. Happily, the Mithraists left behind clues in these caves. The archaeological finds—an abundance of carved reliefs, frescoes, statues and medallions—raise tantalizing questions: Who was the god Mithras; why is he always shown killing a bull; and why 005do a dog, snake, raven and scorpion appear with him? In “Solving the Mithraic Mysteries,” David Ulansey presents a fascinating and conclusive explanation of Mithraic symbolism. The key, he writes, lies in how the ancients understood the movements of the heavens.

Currently on leave from Boston University, where he is assistant professor of religion, Ulansey is a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley and at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is the author of The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World (Oxford Univ. Press, 1989). He is also the author of “Heavens Torn Open—Mark’s Powerful Metaphor Explained,” BR 07:04.

The Bible is very specific in its list of places along the final stage of the Exodus route taken by the Israelites on their way to the Promised Land. Yet it is this very specificity that has made it vulnerable to criticism from some scholars. Many of the places in question, they say, did not exist when the Exodus is said to have occurred. Is the Biblical version unreliable? Hardly, writes Charles R. Krahmalkov. A close look at geographic lists from ancient Egyptian temples, he notes, shows that “Egyptian Evidence Confirms the Exodus Itinerary.”

Krahmalkov is professor of ancient Near Eastern languages and northwest semitic philology at the University of Michigan. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard and has published extensively in such scholarly publications as the Journal of Semitic Studies and the Journal of Near Eastern Studies.

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As of October 1, 1994, our new address will be: Biblical Archaeology Society, 4710 41st Street NW, Washington, DC 20016. Our customer service number will remain unchanged: 1-800-221-4644. Subscription questions should be addressed to P.O. Box 7026, Red Oak, Iowa, 51591, or call 1-800-678-5555.

“Gas, Food and Lodging”—or the ancient equivalent—could have been plastered on billboards outside the Qumran complex in the Judean Desert. The site was neither monastery, fortress, villa, nor home to scroll-writing Essene scribes, as many scholars have claimed: Rather, suggest authors Alan Crown and Lena Cansdale, it was an ancient hostelry, where traders, their camels and pack-asses laden with frankincense and myrrh from the east, could rest and dine on their way to and from Jerusalem. Qumran’s location on a critical trade route between the Dead Sea and Jerusalem would have made it particularly attractive to traders, write Crown […]