The date pen appearing in the Feb. 2004 edition of the Schoyen collection is said to be from Qumran. See:
http://www.nb.no/baser/schoyen/5/5.9/index.html#12.4 and click on the image (there labeled "stylus") to enlarge. Of course, the mere claim of an antiquities dealer will not suffice. And I was doubtful when I first heard of such a claimed pen. I was thinking of a reed pen. Several writers describe a transition from rush pen to reed pen (e.g., A. Lucas and J.R. Harris, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, 4th ed 1962, 364f; W.J. Tait, Rush and Reed: the Pens of Egyptian and Greek Scribes, Proc. XVIII Int.Cong. Papy. v.2, 477f; Willy Clarysse, "Egyptian Scribes Writing Greek," Chronique d'Egypt 68 (1993) 186f; A. Yardeni, etc.). And reeds may not survive well (though there are Egyptian examples); and Qumran is occasionally flooded. As Peter T. Daniels pointed out in "Writing Materials" in Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology of the Near East, no ancient reed stylus used for cuneiform survives. Yet the date material is interesting, Qumran reportedly having, if I recall correctly, date pits, date leaves and fibers, date palm wood, and a date press. The Schoyen fragments called 11QTemple colums 2 and 3, written by Yadin's scribe A, are testable by C14 and DNA. 11QT was previously tested, but where did the samples come from? Yadin suggested that the first sheet (i.e., the scribe A sheet) was a replacement sheet; hence it may give a different date range than the other sheets. There are many date palm leaf manuscripts. So far the only other reference to a date pen that I have at hand is a penciled note to W.M.F. Petrie, Objects of Everyday Use (v. 42, British School of Archaeology in Egypt, 1927), stump of pen, palm fiber. I would be grateful to list readers for further information on date palm pens. best, Stephen Goranson _______________________________________________ g-Megillot mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.McMaster.CA/mailman/listinfo/g-megillot
