Dear Mathew,
I share your caution regarding spindle whorls and fabric fragments as indicators
for female presence or non-presence in Qumran, for several reasons:
1. Our records on small finds from Qumran are less than insufficient and do not
allow us to gain a nearly complete picture of
Russell Gmirkin said:
First, do I recall correctly that others have argued that more than one
skeleton in the main cemetery were female or possibly female? Certainly
spindle whorls and fabric fragments at Qumran show a female presence at
the
site.
Having just read Women's work, the first
Penner inquired (02/09)about relevant literature
regarding the role of women in Qumran. I attempted to
conduct research on this decades old problem as well
as analyzing the human skeletal remains in Germany and
Jerusalem. Finding were published in Dead Sea
Discoveries vol. 7 pp. 220-253. To my
