By: Jodi Magness

Qumran – the site associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls – is located eight and a half miles south of Jericho, by the northwest shore of the Dead Sea.  The site was excavated from 1951-1956 by Roland de Vaux of the École Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jerusalem.  More recently, other expeditions have explored different parts of the site, including the settlement and cemetery (Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg), residential caves to the north (Magen Broshi and Hanan Eshel), and the cemetery (Broshi, Eshel, and Richard Freund).  From ca. 100 B.C.E. to 68 C.E. Qumran was occupied by members of a Jewish sect.  There are also remains of a late Iron Age (pre-586 B.C.E.) settlement and evidence of a brief phase of Roman occupation after 68 C.E. Continue reading →