Image Details

Erich Lessing

This inkwell was found at Qumran, the settlement near where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Qumran, in the opinion of most scholars, was home to the Essenes, an ascetic sect that had removed itself to the desert. Though cut off from civilization, the Essenes seem to have had a level of literacy: They possessed hundreds of religious and sectarian texts and likely produced scores themselves.