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orion-list 63 BCE
Ian Hutchesson's argument that all of the Qumran texts were
deposited in the caves no later than 63 BCE will appear in the
forthcoming Dec 1999 issue of _Qumran Chronicle_. As many
on this list know, Hutchesson has been prohibited for several
years from discussing his 63 BCE theory on the scholarly
discussion lists on which it would be relevant: this list, ane,
and ioudaios.
I also have an article ("The Case for 63 BCE") which will appear
c. Jan 2000 in _Qumran Chronicle_ which gives my argument for
the 63 BCE theory. In this way, through both of our articles, the
theory will be in print and can be discussed on that basis. My
article gives additional discussion of palaeography and radiocarbon
(both of which I argue are ambiguous in establishing post-63 BCE
Qumran textual activity) and particularly a treatment of the archaeology
of Qumran (for the issue of the deposit date or dates of the texts is
fundamentally an archaeological issue). I argue that there was a
significant temporal gap between Period Ib and Period II; that there
was no continuity between Period Ib and II; that all of the text deposits
are associated exclusively with Period Ib; and that Period Ib can be
shown independently to have ended most probably about 63 BCE.
Although radiocarbon is the best means for resolving this dating issue
one way or the other, the problem with the existing data is there is
a lack of security that individual datings are free from contamination.
If the dates are accurate the issue would be settled (we would
know there was post-63 BCE textual activity). But the issue is
whether the dates are accurate. I believe now I underestimated both
the incidence and the potential effects on datings of contamination
of samples in my Flint & Vanderkam 1998 article. For full discussion
of this see the forthcoming _Qumran Chronicle_ article, but essentially
it builds from the information at p. 449n44 in Doudna, "Dating the
Scrolls on the Basis of Radiocarbon Analysis", Flint & Vanderkam,
vol I, as well as a separate article in the same volume by Boyd-Alkalay
& Libman, "Preserving the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran artifacts",
pp. 535-544.
There are basically four methods of dating the deposits of the Qumran
texts. The first, internal references, gives an _a quo_ of c. 63 BCE,
but does not in principle rule out a later deposit date. The second,
palaeography, is ambiguous (per my discussion) and I see no
realistic hope that palaeographic means will produce a clear
answer on the 63 BCE issue. The third, radiocarbon, is also
presently ambiguous (per my discussion) but is the best hope
for a clear resolution of the 63 BCE issue. The fourth, Qumran
archaeology, has a fairly good argument (in my opinion, being
the author of the argument) for the 63 BCE case, but in the
absence of a publication of the excavation in a real sense all of
us who discuss Qumran archaeology aren't playing with a full
deck, and arguments over interpretation can be expected to
continue.
For what it is worth, there is little doubt to me at this point that
the c. 63 BCE theory in some form appears likely to be ultimately
correct, and that the virtually unanimous scholarly consensus of
the c. 68 CE dating is a mistake. I think the lengthy duration of the
68 CE construction in the history of Qumran scholarship can be
attributed in large part to the lack of a full publication of the excavation
of Qumran for all these years, which allowed in basic ways de Vaux's
original, flawed interpetations to go without the means for significant
challenge to them.
Greg Doudna
For private reply, e-mail to Greg Doudna <gd@teol.ku.dk>
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