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Re: orion-list Creation Date of Documents/ C-14

Tom Simms wrote:
> On Mon, 23 Aug 1999 17:10:40 -0400 (EDT),  petersig@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
> writes:
> >
> >Tom Simms cited someone anonymously as follows:
> >
> > "For damn certain, a site isn't usually destroyed
> > _prior_ to the creation date of documents contained
> > therein.  :)"
> >
> >I may already have made this observation in another context, but perhaps
> >it's worth repeating. In the case of material purportedly from Cave 4, 
> >a certain amount of that material was purchased from the Bedouin. Some
> >unknown quantity of Cave 4 document fragments were *then found by
> >excavation of another layer of material in the cave. To some extent, the
> >purchased fragments and the excavated fragments were matched up as coming
> >from the same document. This is noted, as I recall, in Allegro's first
> >book, THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS (1956), which contains a wealth of
> >archaeological information in English. Topics on which he has fairly first
> >hand information include the discovery of Cave 4, and the caves at Wadi
> >Murabba`at.
> 
>    Good grief - do you mean my library is CURRENT!!  Egad.
> 
>    Provenance of DSS mss has always seemed poorly documented to
>    me.  If serious decontamination procedures are followed
>    and a fragment's date is still late then it MAY be late and 
>    created later BUT, that needs very careful find data.  

It seems to me that there are a lot of issues surrounding the finds, 
especially related to cave 4, that haven't been handled all that well.  
I for one would like to know about the purported wooden shelves in 
cave 4: there were no traces of wood left in the piles that we know 
of, but what about the holes in the walls?  Were there shreds or 
bits of wood left in them?  Did anyone check?  If not, why not?  
And can we safely assume it's too late now?  It seems to me that 
the answers to questions like these would go a long way toward 
identifying the nature of cave 4, among other things.  But so far I 
haven't been able to find any information relating to this sort of 
thing.  

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"Oh, no!  They've all become giant Swiss lederhosen-clad
dancing yodelers!"  "Talk about unpredictable!" - P&B
For private reply, e-mail to "Dave Washburn" <dwashbur@nyx.net>
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