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Re: orion Re: Date of Scrolls Deposit--55 BCE?



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Please, Sigrid: palaeographical date assignments are *relative*
assignments, dependent on the baselines scholars have agreed on. The C-14
dates are *absolute* date information; they can indeed falsify claims,
whereas the relative dates based on the opinions of a few scholars cannot.
The whole notion of the validity of the palaeography has not been tested by
independent means, i.e., by testing the palaeographical assignments by C-14
tests specifically designed to try their limits (the present picture is
muddled, as there are in fact some "Hasmonaean" texts that have tested
"late", and some "Herodian" texts that have tested "early"; this picture
requires correction), as Israel Carmi pointed out recently in Jerusalem. It
is just such a test of the palaeography that we have designed here in
Copenhagen, though we shall first have some answers in a year at the
earliest.

best regards,

Fred Cryer