Golb's response like many other arguments put forth by the 'revisionists' ignores the archaeological evidence in favor of the textual evidence. For example, he believed that the cemetery was that of soldiers whereas of the 40 plus skeletons recovered there, there are no signs of violence. Secondly, what is impt. with our finding of the latrines is not the fact that, aside from one parasite, we found the parasites there, it is the distance and direction of the find from the site itself. In fact, two of the three parasites found there are so common in the third world today and in the past that their presence in fecal material is of little scientific concern, however the place, I would like to emphasize, is. Lastly, of all the archaeological sites in the region, Masada, Ein Gedi, Jericho, Qumran is the most simple and understandable. I wish all sites in the Holy Land were as easy to understand. The reason that it is so confusing is due in large part to those writing about the site without any specialized training in anthro. or archaeology. The latrine in Locus 51, is a prime example, some regarded it as a 'tabun' (stove) whereas others believed it was a latrine. For years the debate went on. Instead of arguing about it all one has to do is what we did, take a few grams of dirt from the locus and have it analyzed by a parasitologist. If it's grain then it's cooking, if it's parasites then its a toilet which we proved. Same for the stables, it's not rocket science and a bit amusing and disconcerting to see colleagues with budgets running into thousands of dollars digging in the dark for whatever and not coming up with anything at all. As a result, to satisfy those funding the excavations there and the media, things in the past have been planted in the site to keep certain media people and supporters happy. For more on this topic I suggest reading my article in Revue de Qumran 'Skeletons with multiple personality disorders and other grave errors'. In fact, that famous 'zinc coffin' ca 1st cent AD that I claimed to have been planted in the site for the media was recently found to have been coated with barium-titanium paint, first patented in the 1920's to retard corrosion. Two of the three C-14 dates for the handful of skeletal remains from the cemetery showed dates from the late pre-historic period. Obviously, there were not published. The list is long. Joe Zias :
Joe Zias www.joezias.com Anthropology/Paleopathology Science and Antiquity Group @ The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Jerusalem, Israel
