Search results for ""Author Jean-Baptiste Humbert""

For 60 years Qumran research has been focused on epigraphy, exegesis, and the historical sources of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The manuscripts are now published and accessible, and research is turning in a positive way to the archaeology of the site and its context. The time has come to provide researchers with a complete documentation. The excavator, Roland de Vaux, had given preliminary reports and a valuable interpretation made in the immediate aftermath of the excavations. Since considerable progress has been made in the archeology of Hellenistic and Roman Palestine, however, Qumran has to be reassessed and the interpretation objectively verified.Volume IIIA presents an up-to-date archaeological reconsideration: a shorter and more precise chronology, in which the earthquake of 31 BC is deleted; the concept of an Essene community is challenged, owing to the lack of a suitable infrastructure; the cemetery itself is connected with a Jewish diaspora scattered around the Dead Sea. Other facilities strengthen the Jewish character of the site, however. The function of Qumran fits better with the rites of a pilgrimage on the occasion of the festivals of Passover and Pentecost.In the second part, the peripheral Essene facilities, expanded around an earlier Hellenistic center, are analyzed and described. The essay seeks to outline their internal consistency and to determine their function. The restoration of a stratigraphy, by cross-checking the excavation archives, leads to a redistribution of pottery in four levels in a more precise chronology.The reconsideration makes use of anthropology, which opens up the archaeological field and throws additional light on the manuscripts.

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Text in English and French. Qumran Cave 11Q was discovered by Bedouin in 1956. In the cave, remains of around 30 Dead Sea Scrolls were found, a few of them in very good state of preservation (the Temple Scroll, the Psalm Scroll, the Paleo Leviticus Scroll, and the Targum Job Scroll). The cave was excavated by Roland de Vaux (Ecole Biblique et Archeologique Française, Jerusalem) and Gerald L. Harding (Department of Antiquities of Jordan) in 1956; later by Joseph Patrich (University of Haifa) in 1988, and by Marcello Fidanzio and Dan Bahat (ISCAB FTL and Universitedella Svizzera Italiana) in 2017. Due to Roland de Vaux's premature death, the archaeology of Cave 11Q has never been published. This volume presents the final report on the 1956, 1988 and 2017 excavations at Cave 11Q. Next to discussing the physical characteristics and stratigraphy of the cave and offering a full analysis of non-textual finds, the volume for the first time presents many tiny manuscript fragments found in storerooms during recent work. These fragments, most of which were collected during 1956 excavation, have not been known until now. The volume, therefore, offers the final report of Cave 11Q excavations as well as the editio princeps of the new fragments, followed by a reevaluation of the entire set of texts found in this famous cave.

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Text in English & French. For 60 years Qumran research has been focused on epigraphy, exegesis, and the historical sources of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The manuscripts are now published and accessible, and research is turning in a positive way to the archaeology of the site and its context. The time has come to provide researchers with a complete documentation. The excavator, Roland de Vaux, had given preliminary reports and a valuable interpretation made in the immediate aftermath of the excavations. Since considerable progress has been made in the archeology of Hellenistic and Roman Palestine, however, Qumran has to be reassessed and the interpretation objectively verified. Volume IIIA presents an up-to-date archaeological reconsideration: a shorter and more precise chronology, in which the earthquake of 31 BC is deleted; the concept of an Essene community is challenged, owing to the lack of a suitable infrastructure; the cemetery itself is connected with a Jewish diaspora scattered around the Dead Sea. Other facilities strengthen the Jewish character of the site, however. The function of Qumran fits better with the rites of a pilgrimage on the occasion of the festivals of Passover and Pentecost. In the second part, the peripheral Essene facilities, expanded around an earlier Hellenistic center, are analyzed and described. The essay seeks to outline their internal consistency and to determine their function. The restoration of a stratigraphy, by cross-checking the excavation archives, leads to a redistribution of pottery in four levels in a more precise chronology.m The reconsideration makes use of anthropology, which opens up the archaeological field and throws additional light on the manuscripts.

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