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Re: orion-list Bedouin or Essene Beads?



Shalom, I could agree with your assessment that maybe Essene women might
have 
worn stone bracelets when alive, however the arch. data from the Eastern
site of
the cemetery is such that it's highly improbable.  If there's one thing
that local archaeologists are faced with constantly, it's Bedouin
burials. Sites such as Tel Hesi, Tell Sheva contain hundreds of Islamic
burials and they are easy to spot as they are more less all alike in
terms of grave goods, orientation, depth, style etc. Back in the 50's
when Qumran was being excavated it was quite different to the digs of
today where you have a small ratio of archaeologists to workers thus the
nature of the find was missed.  In the 1970's we asked the
Universities here in Israel to make it mandatory that all archaeologists
have at least one course in Phy. Anthro. so these fundamental and basic
principals could be passed on to the next generation of field
archaeologists, they were not convinced that it
was necessary,  as a result we are sometimes still fumbling around in
the dark. Those doing salvage arch. are the one's with the most field
exp. and after a year or two they immed. spot the Islamic burials. In
fact, even the extremist ultra orthodox burial societies here, the
nemesis of the archaeologists,  can date them quite easily, without
having any academic experience. 

Joe

For private reply, e-mail to Joe Zias <zias@inter.net.il>
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