Endnote 15 – Not a Country Villa

Humbert’s proposal that Qumran functioned as a villa until 57 or 31 B.C.E. depends largely upon comparisons between the plan of the site and contemporary Judean palaces and villas. However, much of this similarity is artificially created by his reconstruction of a triclinium with two columns in antis on the southern side of the site’s period Ia courtyard. As Humbert himself has admitted, this reconstruction is totally hypothetical. He cites no archaeological evidence, such as remains of a stylobate (a course of masonry that supports a row of columns) or traces of column bases at that spot, to support this reconstruction. See Humbert, “L’éspace sacré à Qumran,” p. 172, fig. 2.