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orion-list CD "B", Herodian lamps
>From S. Goranson:
> I quoted Joseph Baumgarten on CD merely because you invited information.
> May I ask: Are you proposing either a date or a place for the CD B text?
>
I appreciated the Baumgarten information. No, no proposal for a
date or place for the CD "B" text. If I was to bet, I'd bet 2 to 1 it
stems from a copy found in a cave near Qumran, and that the
failure to attest "B" at Qumran is simply an accident. But--we don't
know for sure, do we?
> 2) A long time ago, if I recall correctly, you wrote skeptically (correct
> me if that's inaccurate) about "Herodian" period occupation at Qumran,
> specifically mentioning oil lamps.
>
I have never to my knowledge expressed skepticism concerning
the fact of occupation at Qumran during the Herodian period. The
extensive quantity of First Revolt coins is sufficient to establish that
point
beyond any dispute. Perhaps you are referring to
a question I raised concerning whether occupation was _continuous_
during the entirety of the Herodian period. De Vaux did not think so,
others do not think so, etc., and I don't know.
I have trouble seeing how Herodian lamps are capable of shedding
light on that question.
> Perhaps it is worth mentioning, in case you haven't seen it, that
> Robert Donceel gives a (rough) drawing of a "Herodian" lamp, Kh.Q. 2662
> from Qumran tomb 26, on page 92 of "Poursuite des travaux de publication
> du
> materiel archeologique de Khirbet Qumran: les lampes in terre-cuite" in
> Mogilany 1995: Papers on the Dead Sea Scrolls offered in memory of Aleksy
> Klawek (Z. Kapera ed.; Krakow: Enigma, 1998) 87-121,
> best,
>
Thanks for this reference. (Kapera continually publishes interesting
items; I hope people on this list support him by subscribing.)
I haven't seen this article, but the question is can that
lamp be verified to be associated with a burial or a skeleton.
If it can, then there is evidence for very late 1st BCE or 1st century
CE use of the cemetery (since the lamps are well-dated). It would
be news, because no other evidence yet appears to exist to establish
a 1st CE use of the cemetery.
As I recall, De Vaux reported finding that lamp in the process of
digging one of the tombs, but did not claim it was in the tomb itself.
Unfortunately, finding something in the dirt of a cemetery, like the
J. Strange ostracon, is simply not good enough as stand-alone
evidence for dating use of a cemetery for burials, according to
archaeologists I have talked to. Anyway, thanks for the
bibliography.
Greg Doudna
For private reply, e-mail to Greg Doudna <gd@teol.ku.dk>
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