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Re: Are 1000 scribes too many? was Re: DSS Scribes
>The assumption here is that the community of Khirbet Qumran was as static as
>Elephantine was. I think the odds of this are small. Whatever the community
>was used for, I think we can assume that there was a greater turnover of
>residents.
>And what about the graveyard close to the settlement. Didn't contain
>about a thousand graves?
The relevance of the size of the cemetery is relative to the 'normalcy' of the
community life. If the norm was that only young people lived there, while
older ones went to more 'comfortable' lodgings, then the size would not be
relevant. How large was the cemetery in Elephantine?
>By the way:
>As to origin, has anybody made a spectographic analysis of the clay
>of the jars that contained for example the Isaiah scroll from cave
>one? I mean if the clay comes from around Qumran, it probably places
>the burden of proof on the shoulders of those who would maintain that
>this peice of writing came from Jerusalem (then it should have been
>unpacked and repacked at Qumran). However, did the clay come from
>Jerusalem, somebody will have a problem to explain away.
Actually the former is a clear problem, the latter would not be as serious
since the importation of utensils like this may have been the norm for the
community. I have never seen anyone claim that they had absolutely no contact
outside their community.