Qumran Caves: Qumran Caves Are A Series of Caves, Some Natural, Some Artificial, Found Around The

Qumran Caves
Cave 4Q with other caves in the background
Qumran Caves are a series of caves, some natural, some artificial, found around the
archaeological site of Qumran in the Judaean Desert of the West Bank. It is in a number
of these caves that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. The caves are recognized in
Israel as a National Heritage Site.
History
Dead Sea ScrollsEdit
Scrolls in situ
In early 1947, a Bedouin boy of the Ta'amireh tribe, Muhammid Ahmed el-
Hamed called edh-Dhib (the wolf), found a cave after searching for a lost animal. He
stumbled onto the first cave containing scrolls from two thousand years ago. More
Ta'amireh visited the cave and scrolls were taken back to their encampment. They
were shown to Mar Samuel of the Monastery of Saint Mark in April 1947 and the
discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was made known. The location of the cave was not
revealed for another 18 months, but eventually a joint investigation of the cave site
was led by Roland de Vaux and Gerald Lankester Harding.
The interest in the scrolls with the hope of money from their sale initiated a long area-
wide search by the Ta'amireh to find more such scrolls, the first result of which was
the discovery of four caves in Wadi Murabba'atabout 15 kilometers south of Qumran
in 1951.[2] In the Qumran area another cave was discovered, now referred to as Cave
2Q (1Q was the first scroll bearing cave), in February 1952. However, only a few
fragments were found in the cave.[3] Fear of the destruction of archaeological evidence
with the discovery of caves by the Bedouin led to a campaign by the French and
American Schools to explore all other caves to find any remaining scrolls. Although
230 natural caves, crevices and other possible hiding places were examined in an 8
kilometer area along the cliffs near Qumran, only 40 contained any artifacts and one
alone, 3Q, produced texts, the most unusual being the Copper Scroll.[4][5]
Qumran pottery
4Q was discovered in September 1952 by the Ta'amireh. De Vaux, on being offered a

vast amount of fragments, contacted Harding who drove the Qumran site to find that
the Bedouin had discovered caves very near the Qumran ruins. These were Caves 4Q,
5Q, and 6Q, the most important of which was 4Q which originally contained around
three-quarters of all the scrolls found in the immediate Qumran area.[6] The first two
of these caves had been cut into the marl terrace. The third was at the entrance to the
Qumran Gorge just below the aqueduct.[7]
In 1955 a survey of the terrace brought to light a staircase leading down to the
remains of three more artificial caves, 7Q, 8Q and 9Q at the end of the Qumran
esplanade,[8][9] all of which had collapsed and had been eroded, and a fourth cave, 10Q,
on the outcrop which housed Caves 4Q & 5Q.
The last cave containing scrolls to be found, once again by the Ta'amireh, was 11Q.
Among its contents was the Temple Scroll, though it had been spirited away and its
recovery was to prove long and complex.[citation needed]
In February 2017, the discovery of cave 12Q was announced, the contents of which
included storage jars and scroll fragments, but no scrolls themselves. Iron pickaxe
heads from the 1950s were also found, which indicate looting had occurred. In
addition, archaeologists discovered pottery, flintblades, arrowheads, and
a carnelian seal that date to the Chalcolithic and Neolithicperiods.[10]
Artificial cavesEdit
Caves 4Qa right & 10Q left of upper center, seen from Wadi Qumran to the south
In all there are ten marl cut caves in the near vicinity of Qumran: 4Qa, 4Qb, 5Q, 7Q, 8Q,
9Q, 10Q, an oval cave west of 5Q, and two caves to the north in a separate
ravine.[11] Their location necessitates a direct connection with the Qumran settlement.
The three caves at the end of the esplanade could only be accessed via the settlement.
These caves are thought to have been cut for storage and habitation. Marl is a soft
stone and makes excavation relatively easy, but as seen with Caves 7Q - 9Q they
haven't survived well.
4Q, which is now visible from the Qumran esplanade,[12] is actually two caves, one
adjacent to the other. De Vaux referred to them as 4a and 4b. When the Ta'amireh
removed all the fragments they could before Harding's arrival, there was no way to tell
which scrolls belonged to which cave, so they were later all catalogued simply as from
4Q. In excavating the caves hundreds of fragments were still to be found in 4a while
only two or three fragments in 4b. 4a was 8m long and 3.25 m wide with tapering
walls reaching 3m in height.[13]
Archaeological exacavationsEdit
In 1984-1985 Joseph Patrich and Yigael Yadincarried out a systematic survey of over
57 caves north of Qumran and two to the south.[14] In 1985-1991 Patrich excavated
five caves, including Caves 3Q and 11Q. One of Patrich's conclusions was that the caves
"did not serve as habitations for the members of the Dead Sea Sect, but rather as stores
and hiding places".[15]
Patrich took a jack hammer into 3Q to break up and remove large fallen rocks in order
to discover that under the rocks there were only a few Chalcolithic sherds, showing
that the ceiling had collapsed before any Qumran era occupation could have happened.
The cave was uninhabited and used only to store the scrolls left there.[16]
In 1988 in the cave Patrich designated as Cave 13, just north of 3Q, a small juglet was
found from the Herodian era, which was wrapped in palm fibres and contained a
viscous liquid which Patrich presumed was aromatic balsam residue. In 1991 he
discovered several jar stoppers and a complete jar along with date stones and dry
dates suggesting occupation, but as the area in front of the cave showed no attempt to
convert it into a terrace, he concluded that occupation was not of any length.[17]
11Q was examined and no traces of Qumran era occupation was found.[18] A cave
Patrich called Cave 24, which lay between 11Q and 3Q, was large and habitable, but
showed no sign of long-term habitation.[18] Cave FQ37 (named in the 1952 survey)
located high up on the cliff face 2 kilometers south of Qumran was also an improbable
site for permanent dwelling, due to its inaccessibility.
In the winter of 199596, Magen Broshi and Hanan Eshel carried out further
excavations in the caves north of Qumran. They reported other caves not examined by
Patrich and believed that they served as dwellings for the inhabitants of Qumran along
with other artificial caves that have long ago eroded away from the edge of the marl
terrace.[19]
Broshi and Eshel concentrated their interest in the area just north of Qumran,
examining two caves they designated as C and F in a small ravine. The former had part
of its ceiling caved in and was filled with silt from flash floods, but contained 280
potsherds. Cave F had completely collapsed, but when excavated yielded 110
potsherds. They concluded that the area was residential.[20]

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Qumran Caves

Cave 4Q with other caves in the background

4Q was discovered in September 1952 by the Ta'amireh. De Vaux, on being offered a

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