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Re: orion: DSS pottery
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Greg Doudna wrote:
> Thomas Thompson may be right that dating the wide-mouthed storage
> jars at Qumran does not in itself date the jars in the caves
> associated
> with the scrolls deposits, for the reasons he summarized. But
> I have to differ with Thomas on the point about a potential dating of
> the
> wide-mouthed storage jars at the site of Qumran being a waste of time.
Have there been studies on the composition of the clay from
which these types of jars were made? A tad of geology and
mineral analysis just might help. Are any of the hundreds of
shards found in the caves identical in composition to jars
and shards found at Qumran? Are any of these compositions
unique enough to suggest the cave jars and the Qumran jars
were of identical manufacture or even unique to one ceramicist?
If any of the jars were manufactured by the "Qumran People"
themselves, there would probably be some considerable salt
content indicative of clay proximal to the site. Other aspects,
such as rare mineral traces could also be telling given that
soil sample analyses have been conducted on most
archaeological sites in the region. Short of finding a
ceramicist's fingerprint on a Qumran jar and a cave Jar,
clay composition would be the next best thing.
Jack
--
D’man dith laych idneh d’nishMA nishMA
Jack Kilmon (jpman@accesscomm.net)
http://users.accesscomm.net/scriptorium