Posted on Friday 10 October 2003

Finnish archaeologists challenge conventional ideas of Essean civilisation

Probably more has been written about the scrolls found at Qumran on the Dead Sea than about any other archaeological artefacts. A million visitors a year used to visit the place where they were found - at the time that tourists still dared visit Israel. Qumran is quite worth all of the attention it has received. More than 2,000 years ago the place was home to a community known as the Esseans, whose members are known by name from a number of literary sources. The community left behind objects, ruins, a large cemetery, and writings written on leather, papyrus, and metal. "The combination is a unique treasure in the whole world, but so far research has been one-sided", says Finnish archaeologist Kenneth Lönnqvist.

Most research has focused on the writings - especially those with characteristics linked with Christianity. The interest among theologians derives from the fact that the approximately 1,000 scrolls include parts of the Old Testament, and texts that interpret them. Some of the texts have appeared in a number of thick volumes, published in the Oxford University series Discoveries in the Judean Desert. However, little of the archaeological discoveries has been published, or even adequately researched. This can be seen at a French Biblical and archaeological school maintained by Dominican monks in Jerusalem. The school holds much of the material found at Qumran, as well as a number of studies on it. Of the approximately 3,500 titles in the library, 100 involve archaeology. Of these about 20 are scientifically valid, and less than ten of those are important. Lönnqvist points out that many of the latter group do not seem to have been written by professional archaeologists.

Lönnqvist and his wife and colleague Minna Lönnqvist are among a group of a few dozen people who have seen the original archaeological material of Qumran - or the scraps of the treasures that have survived. The two predict that the image of a community living on the shore of the Dead Sea is in the process of changing. "According to the prevailing view the Esseans were an ascetic and isolated pre-Christian monastic order who fled to the desert. In fact, they lived quite comfortably, engaged in flourishing trade, and practised a mystical Hellenistic religion", Minna Lönnqvist says. How is it possible for the same artefacts to yield such contrary information?

The Lönnqvists' answer is a tragicomic story of how amateurs have been busy wreaking havoc with some of the world's most important ancient finds for over half a century. The story begins in the summer of 1947. A Bedouin boy by the name of Mohammad Dib is searching for a lost lamb. He pursues the runaway up the side of a mountain and notices a gap in the rock. Throwing a stone into the opening he hears a strange ceramic sound. The sound revealed a number of jars hidden in the cave filled with leather scrolls covered with linen cloth. More manuscripts were found later, and currently most of the approximately 1,000 scrolls are in the hands of Israeli museum authorities. The other artefacts are inaccessible to researchers. On many occasions since the late 1940s war has made the ruins inaccessible to archaeologists, because they happen to be situated in the West Bank.

The publication rights and the right to study the artefacts are in the hands of the French Biblical and archaeological school. Nobody knows when the Dominican community will make the information public. "In archaeology, the finder gets to keep the publication rights, but not all of the material", says Kenneth Lönnqvist. He does not mind the fair principle of a finder's rights, but he does object to the fact that anyone with money and power is allowed to dig up relics of the past. "Most of the excavations in the Middle East are done by people who are not professional archaeologists. In Qumran archaeological research was first led by a Dominican monk by the name of Roland de Vaux. Later a journalist from Toronto was busy at the ruins."

It was not until the 1990s that trained archaeologists from Israel and several other countries took control of the archaeological excavations. The place was then revealed as a scene of extensive destruction. The scrolls in one of the caves were literally dug out with a shovel; the contents of the layers of earth covering them were not documented in any way. Only scattered notes were available of the original excavations. Many objects had been stolen, and 700 bronze coins had disappeared. They would be of great help in determining when the Esseans settled in the area and when they left. Someone has also removed the rear parts of the altars, which were located in the largest room of the ruins. The large stones can still be seen in a photograph taken in the 1950s. [link]

Also about the Lönnqvists and Qumran: Structures at Qumran suggest ancient sun cult