----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim West" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Gregory L Doudna" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2004 1:39 PM Subject: Re: [Megillot] Redating the Dead Sea Scroll Deposits
> At 07:11 PM 6/10/04 +0200, you wrote: > > >Magness states that she has neither "time nor inclination" to > >engage specifics. > > > >Greg Doudna > > That's a shame. If someone has put enough thought into something to say > they disagree with it completely then surely they can stoop to explain why > so that the person can evaluate with fresh eyes their own ideas. The > imperialism of some academics is simultaneously disgusting and disheartening. > > Nevertheless, gross generalities like "disagree with all of it" should not > be taken with any level of seriousness. Such statements simply show that > the person making them is disengaged. Unless your paper is refuted point by > point it stands unrefuted. I think Jim will agree with me that very often these types of "debates" are not as much issues of scholarship and methods as they are about "territory." You know..that which kept the DSS hoarded for 50 years. I was in Bill Albright's office for the one of the first examinations of photographs on the cave 1 scrolls....in fact, he gave me a translational exercise with the Isaiah text. I was but a lad. One could not then predict decades of territorialism, jealousy, VERY shoddy care of the scrolls and fragments themselves and total lack of reporting for the Qumran dig. All the while, assumptions were made regarding the origin of the DSS, who wrote them and the relationship between the cave materials and the Qumran site. I think Jim will agree with me that very often these types of "debates" are not as much issues of scholarship and methods as they are about "territory." You know..that which kept the DSS hoarded in desks and vest pockets for 50 years. I was in Bill Albright's office for one of the first examinations of photographs on the cave 1 scrolls....in fact, he gave me a translational exercise with the Isaiah text. I was but a lad. One could not then predict decades of territorialism, jealousy, VERY shoddy care and contamination of the texts themselves and total lack of reporting for the Qumran dig. All the while, assumptions were made regarding the origin of the DSS, who wrote them and the relationship between the cave materials and the Qumran site...a relationship I, to this day, do not believe exists. I welcome Greg's evaluation..he is, after all, facile in the field of AMS dating and I also welcome Goranson's critique but, as a scientist familar with C14 methods I have to say that disagreeing with ALL of Greg's research with a blanket statement is not science or scholarship..it's territorialism. Something that intrigues me, for its absence, is a careful microscopic scan of the so-called "scriptorium tables." The plaster tops are absorbant..at least they were when in use. If the surfaces of these tables show no ink, embedded fibers, or other artifacts of scribal activity, surface use and wear, they are not scriptorium tables. I have seen no report on this critical examination relevent to whether or not there was scribal activity at Qumran. The inkwells are not enough. I'm sorry, but I have been watching and reading since that day in Albright's office over a half century ago and there has been far too much bungling. Jack Kilmon San Marcos, Texas _______________________________________________ g-Megillot mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.McMaster.CA/mailman/listinfo/g-megillot
