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Qumran location as a military installation (fwd)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 1996 13:29:14 EST
From: Paul V. M. Flesher <PFlesher@uwyo.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <ioudaios-l@lehigh.edu>
Subject: Qumran location as a military installation
Dear Ian,
Since I am teaching a course on DSS this semester, I and my class have been
looking intensively at the primary information on Qumran and the DSS. If
you study the plan of the site, there is no indication that it was designed
for military use. Most importantly, there is no system of defensive walls
which any self-respecting fort would have. But furthermore, archaeologists
did not find a significant amount of military remains (arrowheads, etc.) in
any stratum except the final one (which is dated to the time of the Jewish
Revolt against the Romans). So I find the argument that the Qumran
archaeological remains had a military purpose throughout its history simply
to be unsupportable.
Paul
Paul V. M. Flesher
Religious Studies
University of Wyoming
Laramie, WY 82071-3353