He asks, "To which period or periods of Qumran does this Essene cemetery of adult males apply ..." ? My 'good natured' reply. Until proven otherwise, based on the available data, nearly all the males excavated so far, are from the First century BC to 68 AD. Perhaps one can argue that zealots, et al were there for short periods of time however as the evidence shows there is such a high degree of homogeneity that I feel that if these 'outsiders' were dying there, they were influenced by the Essenes to such an extent that they accepted their way of burial. However, looking at the skeletal evidence, where not one broken bone has been reported, the argument for those rather aggressive and troublesome zealots being there in the cemetery may be weak. Secondly, I'm not so sure that outsiders would have been staying there for long periods, they certainly may have visited but there is no way of looking at a single burial and saying this is a zealot or an Essene burial. One must look at the totality of the picture and not say, well here we have a woman and this shows..... True, colleagues and I with experience in burial archaeology may not always be correct however one has to look at the totality of the cemetery, (excluding the Bedouin and some skeletal and 'archaeological' material which was planted), which for me suggests 'Glatt Essene'
As far as a Roman outpost post 68 AD, no problem, the question is did any of them die there and if so, were they buried there? Find me a cremation there and I'll be the first to admit that it probably was a Roman soldier.
As for the fringe theories, some of the latest stuff seems to be a parody of the profession, e.g. the anthro. report from the Brown conference in which the skeletons are now divided into 'date eaters' vs 'bread eaters' based on dentition of the skeletons. Personally I would have preferred, The Potato Eaters' which leave more of an Impression (apologies to VVG) however in the world of Qumran studies whereby everyone has a say, nothing today seems too absurd as shown by another Brown lecturer who claimed that those (Bedouins) in the cemetery were facing southward as they were worshiping the pyramids! This invited lecturer who was part of the well funded Eshel/Freund/Broshi excavation later published a book on the fact that John the Baptist was also buried there and Jesus Initiation took place there** (BAR incidentally provided funding for this excavation which was unusual) Sound a bit absurd, well the cemetery session at the Brown conference was chaired by another participant from the Eshel/Broshi excavation who earlier reported that the skeleton from T-1000 was none other than John the Baptist, which he was later forced under pressure to retract.
One particular paper in the Brown conference report, some of which is worth reading, goes to such lengths of absurdity that in their cemetery reconstruction they claim that the paths in the cemetery are actually irrigation channels for watering all those dates they were eating. Seems the cemetery doubled as a agricultural plot.
Lastly, you may be confusing the picture by relying too much on what the textual people and what archaeologists have in the past said. Remember that for over 50 yrs they missed the obvious and undeniable fact that those east-west female and children burials are Bedouin burials. Having been the first Israeli anthropologist to see the German/Qumran data before being published it took me but 30 seconds to realize that those burials were either intrusive Moslem or Christian burials and another 12 months to read all the literature. When I later showed the evidence to a much younger colleague from the field of burial archaeology/anthropology, it took him ca 15 seconds to realize the same, seems I had had a 'senior moment'...
** The Secret Initiation of Jesus at Qumran. Author- R. Feather. See http://www.innertraditions.com/isbn/ Publisher- Bear and Co. VT.
GREG Doudna <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Joe,
To which period or periods of Qumran does this Essene cemetery of adult
males
apply, such that the fringe theories are ruled out? Are you including de
Vaux's
theory of Qumran as a Roman outpost in the excluded fringe theories? Are you
including Cross's and Goranson's theory of Qumran as inhabited by zealots in
part of Period II as excluded in the fringe theories? Its all well and good
to
say the cemetery is essene, therefore that defines the nature of the site,
but the problem is you have left out a tiny detail of immense
significance--the
precise dating of the cemetery. If you don't know the precise dating, then
how are so-called fringe theories excluded by the cemetery? I am sure you
are
aware that nearly all expositors, archaeologists and otherwise, dealing with
Qumran
have various forms of mixed uses of the site depending on dating. Clarify
your
logic please as to what use of the site is firmly excluded when? Again on
the "when",
what exactly do you know about the precise dating of the adult male burials
of
the cemetery? Or are you assuming, against every known archaeologist writing
about Qumran, that Qumran was all Essene, all the time, and that the
cemetery
was all Qumran, all the time?
Good-naturedly,
Greg Doudna
> Following a lecture on Qumran by Y. Magen a few months back I asked him
>about the sex of the north-south burials which I have claimed over the past
>few years as being Essene burials from the late Second Temple Period. Not
>surprisingly, they were all adult males which provides further support that
>what we are witnessing here is, aside from one female on the fringe, an
>Essene cemetery of adult males. This fact, should dispel all those fringe
>theories being bandied about that the site is a manor, fortress etc. Those
>advocating these theories must somehow explain the fact that no woman nor
>children are present in the cemetery population for anyone of us to take
>them seriously.
>
>Joe Zias
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Joe Zias www.joezias.com
Anthropology/Paleopathology
Science and Antiquity Group @ The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Jerusalem, Israel
Anthropology/Paleopathology
Science and Antiquity Group @ The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Jerusalem, Israel
