The Israel Antiquities Authority has posted the preliminary report (pdf) of the Qumran excavations (1993-2004) by Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg. You may recall that a recent article in Biblical Archaeology Review indicated that these archaeologists conclude that Qumran was a pottery manufacturing site, not the home of the Essenes. They state their motivation for this report in the preface:
We felt it necessary to separately publish this article due to the fact that until now, most of the discussion regarding our new theory on the nature of the site has been in newspapers–in articles not initiated by us–and has been based upon unsubstantiated evidence from certain scholars.
The report is well written and illustrated with many beautiful photographs and drawings.
3 thoughts on “Qumran Excavation Report”
Hi – Does this render previous research done on the Essene sect unreliable? Thanks.
Many scholars would disagree with the conclusions of this report. Expect to see more discussion about this in the months and years to come.
Great, thanks for your response.