Re: The Newly Discovered Latrine at Qumran
update (12/22/06): for more discussion, see the new post in Codex here.
Here is a photo with an arrow showing the location of the newly discovered latrine at the Qumran/DSS site. It is behind the bluff in the upper left of the photo.
As many of you have read, it was by using what the Qumran sectarian writings say about bathroom procedures and locations that the researchers located this spot and decided to test its soil for evidence.
For me, the main point of this discovery is that it reinforces the connection between the site and the Dead Sea Scroll community. Given the doubts about this connection being popularized nowadays, this sort of evidence is really very significant!
For much more on this, see Codex and James Tabor's blog.
Here is a photo with an arrow showing the location of the newly discovered latrine at the Qumran/DSS site. It is behind the bluff in the upper left of the photo.
As many of you have read, it was by using what the Qumran sectarian writings say about bathroom procedures and locations that the researchers located this spot and decided to test its soil for evidence.
For me, the main point of this discovery is that it reinforces the connection between the site and the Dead Sea Scroll community. Given the doubts about this connection being popularized nowadays, this sort of evidence is really very significant!
For much more on this, see Codex and James Tabor's blog.
posted by S and C at 7:19 AM
3 Comments:
Given the fact that humans have to go to the bathroom, and given the fact that societies develop norms for dealing with waste, it doesn't surprise me that the Dead Sea texts, when they mention the topic, do so with the basic concepts of the day and age. So, given the basic concepts mentioned, they would probably direct one to the remains of latrines at most sites.
From what I understand, the DSS sectarian documents specify the latrine location in a way more specific than the basic concepts of the day and age. However, I am just going by what I've seen in the articles posted on the web. For full details, we may have to wait for the actual article to come out in Revue de Qumran. ---SLC
Update: a better response to this question can now be found here: http://biblical-studies.ca/blog/wp/2006/12/22/more-on-the-qumran-latrines/
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