Chris Weimer

Scrolls were where? Not at Qumran. They were nearby, in caves, but not necessarily depending on Qumran itself. That connection never was verified - only assumed. It's was logical then, but it doesn't seem so today.

Godless Dave

How do we know they weren't produced at Qumran?

Chris Weimer

Isn't that question sort of like asking, "How do we know there isn't a God?"

1) There's not any evidence linking the two. 2) The initial assumptions were just that - assumptions. The proximity of Qumran to the Scrolls led early excavators to assume that Qumran was in the business of turning out Scrolls (the amount of work in producing the entire corpus of the scrolls is enormous). 3) Given that the facts now oppose Qumran as a monastery for producing these works, in favor of perhaps a fort or a pottery center, it's implausible that the works came from Qumran at all. 4) Can you honestly say that the Copper Scroll came from a pottery center? :huh:

Also, see my blogpost here and the forum debate here.

Sheshbazzar

It was the finding of multiple inkwells and the remains of plaster tables in Room #30 that led de Vaux's to designating it as a "Scriptorium".

It is interesting to note the claim that more inkwells were found on this site than have been found at any other single excavation anywhere in Israel, and that inkwells are a relatively rare find.

And that the remains of the long, low "plaster tables" or "writing benches", found in Room #30 were of such light construction (plaster over woven reeds) that they would not have survived being used to sit upon.

And then also, the style of writing found on pottery shards from Qumran is the same as that to be found within the DSS. and the pottery jars from the caves also match, and appear to have been produced at the Qumran site.

These things still appear to support de Vaux's identification of that location as a scriptorium.

This would in no wise however require that ALL of the DSS were produced on site. Even today, many small sects and groups produce only small amounts of their own writings to supplement, and/or to interpret a much larger bulk of documents that are received from other sources.