Re: [Megillot] Qumran cemetery-the skeletons

[RUSSELLGMIRKIN]

With all due respect, Joe, your conclusions appear to far exceed your supporting evidence.    (1) If there were Essenes at Qumran, it is most likely they were there in the capacity of agricultural workers.  The Essenes are characterized as agriculturalists in all the primary Greek sources, including Pliny's passage famously putting them west of the Dead Sea.  Dio Chrysostom says the Essenes dwelled in a "blessed city" near Sodom, which can only be a reference to Jericho, where they were also likely employed starting in the Herodian period as agriculturalists.  The Talmud refers to "men of Jericho" who were agriculturalists whose practices differed from the rabbis, and this is taken by some to be a Talmudic reference to the Essenes.  I think it is a fair premise that agricultural workers in this period would be male.  Even if your interpretation of the skeletal remains is correct, and even if a majority of the burials at Qumran are Essene, this would likely apply to the workers, not the owners / administrators of this agricultural estate.  The only burial that might be associated with the owners / administrators of Qumran at this point is the anomalous "monumental" burial (that some have fancifully attributed to John the Baptist or the Teacher of Righteousness).   (2) None of the Greek sources put Essenes in this region prior to c. 4 BCE.  It is likely that Essene presence in this region is a Herodian era phenomenon associated with well-documented Herodian development of agricultural resources (including the palm industry) in the lower Jordan valley as well as Herodian favoritism towards the Essenes documented in Josephus.  Hence Greg's inquiries on chronology are highly relevant (and mirror past queries I have made on this list in the past).  I haven't seen any solid evidence to indicate the putative Essene burials are pre-Herodian.   (And I think the archaeology of de Vaux's Period Ib is most consistent with Qumran being a Sadducee outpost in this earlier period.)   (3) I also see little to connect the cemetery with the occupants of Qumran other than proximity.  Another plausible interpretation of the cemetery is that it was used by residents of Jericho.  This would be consistent with the regulations regarding cemeteries in the Temple Scroll.  If the burials were Essene, and if the literature at the site were Essene as many suggest (though I would disagree), this would indeed argue against associating the burials with the owners of the site.  I do not see how this interpretation of the site is excluded by the skeletal data.  The connections of the site of Qumran with Jericho in terms of architecture, pottery, as well as the textual (ostracon) evidence show that Qumran cannot be considered in isolation, but had close relations with Jericho.    (4) Without going into the secondary literature, there is modest archaeological evidence for the presence of women at Qumran itself, which seems inconsistent with your thesis.   (5) I do not see how the evidence of the cemetery dispels the archaeological interpretation of Qumran Period I as a minor Hasmonean fortress or baris in its initial phase, before the site was converted to primarily agricultural purposes.  This theory has the support of a number of archaeologists and appears to be far more mainstream than you care to acknowledge.   As a number of members on this list have observed from time to time, the site of Qumran appears to have had a fairly complex history and may have undergone one or more changes of owner and purpose over time.  This has to be taken into account in drawing conclusions from any isolated archaeological datum.  Any argument that the site is Essene, if it is to be truly scientific, needs to be argued period by period, and should also take into account the possibility that the owners and workers may represent two distinct populations.   Best regards, Russell Gmirkin 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