Category:Qumran Studies--1950s

"Biblical Manuscripts for sale" (The Wall Street Journal, 1 June 1954)

The "Scrollery" Room at the Palestine Archaeological Museum

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Qumran Studies in the 1950s--Works and Authors

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Overview

In 1950 Burrows published the manuscripts from Cave 1 without revealing their exact origin and provenience. The negotiations for the purchase of the manuscripts were still open. Eventually, Israeli authorities were able to purchase most of the manuscripts from cave 1, including those advertised for sale in a famous ad on the Wall Street Journal on June 1, 1954.

In the meantime, in November 1951, Roland de Vaux and his team from the ASOR began a full excavation of Qumran and the surrounding area. In early 1952 a new cave (Cave 2) with new fragments was discovered by Bedouins and on March 14 archaeologists first entered Cave 3. It became a race between Bedouins and archaeologists. In September-December 1952 Caves 4-5-6 were identified by the ASOR teams. Between 1953 and 1956, Roland de Vaux led four more archaeological expeditions in the area to uncover scrolls and artifacts. The last cave, Cave 11, was discovered in 1956 and yielded the last fragments to be found in the vicinity of Qumran.

The majority of the newly-found fragments became property of the Palestinian Archaeological Museum (commonly known as the Rockefeller Museum) in East Jerusalem and were stored there since 1953. The scrolls suffered deterioration and damage from their transportation and the poor storage conditions at the Museum and during their temporary location in the Ottoman Bank vault from 1956 to the Spring of 1957 during the Arab-Israel War. Many of the texts deteriorated to the point of becoming illegible. Fortunately, the Museum had all the material photographed by local Arab photographer Najib Albina.