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TheQumran Caves (Arabic:كهوف قمرانKuhūf Qumrān;Hebrew:מערות קומראןHaMeara Kumran) are a series of caves, both natural and artificial, found around the archaeological site ofQumran in theJudaean Desert. It is in these caves that theDead Sea Scrolls were discovered.
Israel Nature and Parks Authority took over the site following the end of the 1967 war, whenIsrael occupied the West Bank and seized Qumran. Israel has since invested heavily in the area to establish the Qumran caves as a site of "uniquely Israeli Jewish heritage".[1] The caves are recognized in Israel as aNational Heritage Site, despite the caves being inoccupied Palestinian territories; as such, the designation has drawn criticism.[2]
Thelimestone cliffs above Qumran contain numerous caves that have been used over the millennia: the first traces of occupation are from theChalcolithic period then onward to the Arab period.[3] The artificial caves relate to the period of the settlement at Qumran and were cut into themarl bluffs of the terrace on which Qumran sits.
| Cave | Notable finds |
|---|---|
| Cave 1 (1Q) | Original seven scrolls, including theGreat Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa),Community Rule (1QS),Thanksgiving Hymns (1QH),War Scroll (1QM),Habakkuk Pesher (1QpHab), andGenesis Apocryphon (1QapGen).[4][5][6][7][8][9] |
| Cave 2 (2Q) | Fragments of biblical and parabiblical texts, includingGenesis (2Q1),Jeremiah (2Q13),Ruth (2Q17), andJubilees (2Q20).[10][11][12][13] |
| Cave 3 (3Q) | Copper Scroll (3Q15), with additional jars and fragments of leather scrolls.[14][15] |
| Cave 4 (4Q) | Largest cache at Qumran, with over 16,000 fragments, comprising biblical and sectarian works, includingDeuteronomy (e.g., 4QDeutn),Jubilees (4Q218–4Q221), and numerouspesharim and liturgical texts.[16][17][18][19] |
| Cave 5 (5Q) | Biblical and non-biblical fragments, includingKings (5Q2),Isaiah (5Q3),Psalms (5Q5),Lamentations (5Q7),Apocryphon of Malachi (5Q10),Community Rule fragments (5Q11),New Jerusalem (5Q15), andtefillin (5Q8).[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] |
| Cave 6 (6Q) | Biblical and non-biblical fragments, including paleoGenesis (6Q1),Kings (6Q4),Song of Songs (6Q6),Daniel (6Q7), Allegory of the Vine (6Q11),Damascus Document (6Q15), and calendrical text (6Q17).[28][29][30][31][32][33][34] |
| Cave 7 (7Q) | Greek papyrus fragments, includingLXX Exodus (7Q1) and theEpistle of Jeremiah (7Q2), with additional tiny unidentified Greek pieces.[35][36][37] |
| Cave 8 (8Q) | Biblical and non-biblical fragments,tefillin andmezuzot sets from the cave deposit.[38][39] |
| Cave 9 (9Q) | Very few fragments, including unidentified texts, anostracon also reported from the vicinity.[40][41] |
| Cave 10 (10Q) | Very few remains, including an unidentifiable papyrus fragment and anostracon.[42] |
| Cave 11 (11Q) | Temple Scroll (11Q19/11QTa),Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus (11Q1),Great Psalms Scroll (11Q5),Jubilees (11Q12),Melchizedek (11Q13),Targum Job (11Q10).[43][44][45][46][47][48] |
| Cave 12 (12Q) | No scrolls recovered. Broken storage jars, a leather binding strap, and 1950s pickaxe heads indicate a looted scroll deposit.[49][50] |
The artificial marl-cut caves at Qumran were hewn during the site's lateSecond Temple occupation. This began in theHasmonean phase, in the late 2nd to early 1st century BCE, and continued in use through the Herodian period. The caves were contemporaneous with the Qumran settlement on the terrace, and they were functionally linked to it.[51][52][53][54]
In all there are ten marl cut caves in the near vicinity of Qumran: 4Qa, 4Qb, 5Q, 7Q, 8Q, 9Q, 10Q, an oval cave west of 5Q, and two caves to the north in a separate ravine.[55] Their location necessitates a direct connection with the Qumran settlement. The three caves at the end of the esplanade could only be accessed via the settlement. These caves are thought to have been cut for storage and habitation. The artificial caves at Qumran were cut into soft, rapidly weatheringmarl of the Lisan Formation, which made excavation easy but led to erosion and collapse. The marl-cut caves on the terrace where caves 7Q, 8Q and 9Q were recorded survive only as eroded, partially collapsed remains.[56][57][58]
4Q, which is now visible from the Qumran esplanade,[59] is actually two caves, one adjacent to the other. De Vaux referred to them as 4a and 4b. When the Ta'amireh removed all the fragments they could before Harding's arrival, there was no way to tell which scrolls belonged to which cave, so they were later all catalogued simply as from 4Q. In excavating the caves hundreds of fragments were still to be found in 4a while only two or three fragments in 4b. 4a was 8 meters long and 3.25 meters wide with tapering walls reaching 3 meters in height.[60]
In late 1946 or early 1947, aBedouin boy of theTa'amireh tribe, Muhammid Ahmed el-Hamed callededh-Dhib (the wolf), found a cave after searching for a lost animal. He stumbled onto the first cave containing old scrolls. More Ta'amireh visited the cave and scrolls were taken back to their encampment. They were shown toMar Samuel of theSyriac Orthodox Church in April 1947 who realised their significance and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was made known.[61] The location of the cave was not revealed for another 18 months, but eventually a joint investigation of the cave site was led byRoland de Vaux andGerald Lankester Harding from 15 February to 5 March 1949.[62]
The interest in the scrolls with the hope of money from their sale initiated a long area-wide search by the Ta'amireh to find more such scrolls, the first result of which was the discovery of four caves inWadi Murabba'at about 15 km (9.3 mi) south of Qumran in 1951.[63] In the Qumran area another cave was discovered, now referred to as Cave 2Q (1Q was the first scroll-bearing cave), in February 1952. However, only a few fragments were found in the cave.[64] Fear of the destruction of archaeological evidence with the discovery of caves by the Bedouin led to a campaign by the French and American Schools to explore all other caves to find any remaining scrolls. Although 230 natural caves, crevices and other possible hiding places were examined in an 8-kilometer area along the cliffs near Qumran, only 40 contained any artifacts and one alone, 3Q, produced texts, the most unusual being theCopper Scroll.[65][66]
4Q was discovered in September 1952 by the Ta'amireh. De Vaux, on being offered a vast amount of fragments, contacted Harding who drove to the Qumran site to find that the Bedouin had discovered caves very near the Qumran ruins. These were Caves 4Q, 5Q, and 6Q, the most important of which was 4Q which originally contained around three-quarters of all the scrolls found in the immediate Qumran area.[67] The first two of these caves had been cut into the marl terrace. The third was at the entrance to the Qumran Gorge just below the aqueduct.[68]
In 1955, a survey of the terrace brought to light a staircase leading down to the remains of three more artificial caves, 7Q, 8Q and 9Q at the end of the Qumran esplanade,[69][70] all of which had collapsed and had been eroded, and a fourth cave, 10Q, on the outcrop which housed caves 4Q and 5Q.
Qumran Cave 11 (11Q), discovered by Ta'amireh Bedouin in early 1956, was the final Qumran cave to yield Dead Sea Scrolls.[71][72] Finds includePaleo-Hebrew Leviticus scroll (11QpaleoLev),the Great Psalms Scroll (11Q5), and theTemple Scroll.[73][74][75] The Temple Scroll entered scholarly custody in 1967, when Yigael Yadin announced Israel's acquisition following theSix-Day War. Between its discovery in Qumran Cave 11 in early 1956 and its transfer to Israeli custody in June 1967, the Temple Scroll remained outside institutional control in Bethlehem, held by the antiquities dealer Khalil Iskander Shahin (Kando), intermittently offered to authorities and intermediaries, hidden for long periods in his home, and known to scholars only through reports and a small fragment circulated in the early 1960s. After the Six-Day War, Yigael Yadin obtained the scroll from Kando for the Shrine of the Book. Accounts based on Yadin's narrative and later syntheses specify that Kando concealed the manuscript in a shoebox beneath a floor tile in his Bethlehem shop or home until 1967, when Israeli authorities secured it and paid Kando as part of the acquisition.[75][76][77]
In February 2017, the discovery of cave 12Q was announced, the contents of which included completely broken storage jars and scroll fragments, but no scrolls themselves.[78] The cave was investigated by J. Randall Price and students ofLiberty University inVirginia, along with an international team of archaeologists from theHebrew University ofJerusalem inIsrael.[79][80] Iron pickaxe heads from the 1950s were also found, which indicate looting had occurred. In addition, archaeologists discovered pottery,flint blades, arrowheads, and acarnelian seal that date to theChalcolithic andNeolithic periods.[78][81]
"This exciting excavation is the closest we've come to discovering new Dead Sea scrolls in 60 years. Until now, it was accepted that Dead Sea scrolls were found only in 11 caves at Qumran, but now there is no doubt that this is the 12th cave," reported Dr. Oren Gutfeld, the head of the excavations.[80]
According to Israel Hasson, Director-General of theIsrael Antiquities Authority (IAA), the discovery of this cave showed that significant works were waiting to be done in theJudean Desert and some of important ones were waiting to be revealed.[82][83]
In 1984–1985Joseph Patrich andYigael Yadin carried out a systematic survey of over 57 caves north of Qumran and two to the south.[84] In 1985–1991 Patrich excavated five caves, including Caves 3Q and 11Q. One of Patrich's conclusions was that the caves "did not serve as habitations for the members of the Dead Sea Sect, but rather as stores and hiding places".[85]
It was discovered that under the rocks in Cave 3Q there were only a fewChalcolithic sherds, showing that the ceiling had collapsed before any Qumran-era occupation. The cave was uninhabited and used only to store the scrolls left there.[86]
In 1988 in the cave Patrich designated as Cave 13, just north of 3Q, a small juglet was found from theHerodian era, which was wrapped in palm fibres and contained a viscous liquid which Patrich presumed was aromatic balsam residue. In 1991 he discovered several jar stoppers and a complete jar along withdate stones and dry dates suggesting occupation, but as the area in front of the cave showed no attempt to convert it into a terrace, he concluded that occupation was not of any length.[87]
11Q was examined and no traces of Qumran era occupation was found.[88] A cave Patrich called Cave 24, which lay between 11Q and 3Q, was large and habitable, but showed no sign of long-term habitation.[88] Cave FQ37 (named in the 1952 survey) located high up on the cliff face 2 kilometers south of Qumran was also an improbable site for permanent dwelling, due to its inaccessibility.
In late 1995 and early 1996,Magen Broshi andHanan Eshel carried out further excavations in the caves north of Qumran. They reported other caves not examined by Patrich and believed that they served as dwellings for the inhabitants of Qumran along with other artificial caves that have long ago eroded away from the edge of the marl terrace.[89]
Broshi and Eshel concentrated their interest in the area just north of Qumran, examining two caves they designated as C and F in a small ravine. The former had part of its ceiling caved in and was filled with silt from flash floods, but contained 280 potsherds. Cave F had completely collapsed, but when excavated yielded 110 potsherds. They concluded that the area was residential.[90]
Two other archaeological sites from the same time period,Ein Feshkha, andAin el-Ghuweir, both located south of Qumran along the shore of the Dead Sea, are also often linked with Qumran.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)In Cave 3 searchers found pottery jars, leather fragments from fourteen scrolls, and the Copper Scroll.
Cave 4 ... yielded over 16,000 scroll fragments.
Cave 7 held four jars and fragments of twelve scrolls written in Greek.
In Caves 9 and 10 an ostracon and an unidentifiable papyrus fragment turned up.
In Caves 9 and 10 an ostracon and an unidentifiable papyrus fragment turned up.
The rock in the area consists of soft horizontal strata of marl… The weathering processes… were very rapid.
The cave had partially collapsed… in the marl caves
In the following years, Caves 5 through 10 were found in the vicinity of Cave 4… Cave 7 held…; Caves 9 and 10…
The Temple Scroll a (11Q19) was almost certainly discovered in 1956 in Cave 11, located about two kilometers north of Khirbet Qumran.
31°44′31″N35°27′31″E / 31.74194°N 35.45861°E /31.74194; 35.45861