Qumran at seventy : reflections on seventy years of scholarship on the archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea scrolls

Abstract

Qumran is probably one of the most renowned and disputed sites in the ancient Near East. In large part this is because of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in caves in its immediate vicinity. The year 2017 marks the seventieth anniversary of the discovery of these scrolls, which changed the scholarly landscape of ancient Judaism and biblical studies and also put Qumran on the archaeological map. In celebration of this important milestone, this paper traces seventy years of scholarship on the archaeology of Qumran, with a view to highlighting key methodological issues surrounding the many heated debates about its nature and function as well as its relationship to the scrolls.