----- Original Message ----- From: "Jack Kilmon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Stephen Goranson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, December 26, 2004 1:43 PM Subject: Re: [Megillot] L30 Tables
> 16 feet of plastered mud-clay table and benchwork that has stirred > controversy regarding their use. They were found in L30 and apparently fell > from the second floor. Were they for writing? Triclinium (kinda narrow)? Assumedly for writing and/or calculation, but assumedly it was no Triclinium (an anachronistic term with Catholic connotation) > Microanalysis of the plaster surface would settle the matter. If this table > was used in a scriptorium there will be microscopic traces of ink, perhaps > even animal hide and papyrus microfibers. No Scriptorium (again an anachronistic term), but perhaps a branch office. > There could be indentations from > writing in the plaster..but there WILL be trace elements of scribal activity > IF it was used for that purpose. It would have been inevitable after years > of use. Traces of ink - perhaps, perhaps not. > Surface analysis methodologies has been one of the most rapid areas of > technological advance. X-ray fluorescence and diffraction, laser > diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, reflectometry and photoemission methods > lead lists of dozens of non-destructive techniques. For sure one would find the genetic fingerprint of P�re Roland de Vaux. > These traces will settle whether or not there was a "scriptorium" and the > word wont have to be put in quotation marks any more by authors writing > books and papers concerning Qumran and L30. The word remains in quotation marks due to its anachronistic connotation. >I remember Stephen Goranson's > aticle in BAR regarding scribal activity at Qumran..what? 10 years ago? BAR 20, 5 (1994) pp.37-39. _dierk _______________________________________________ g-Megillot mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.McMaster.CA/mailman/listinfo/g-megillot
