Implications of the Material Aspects of the Dead Sea Scrolls for Qumran Studies

This paper summarizes the results of recent material studies of various fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls and presents their possible implications in the context of the general studies. Features like colour and thickness belong to important characteristics of parchment resulting from the production process. Chemical and physical analyses of a large set of fragments allow us to divide parchment into three categories: tanned, non-tanned, non-tanned and split. This points to the co-existence of different preparation technologies resulting in parchment with distinct properties. We believe that the Talmud rules on skin treatment before inscription reflect these technologies. Within our studies we tentatively reconstructed the history of the Genesis Apocryphon. Written with a corrosive ink on a tanned parchment, it was found rolled together with an additional layer of non-inscribed non-tanned parchment. Chemical composition of the ink is in agreement with a 1st century AD ink recipe recorded in Materia Medica by a Greek physician, Pedanius Dioscorides. Study of the scroll deterioration as a function of time and exposition to light during the post-discovery period allows us to speculate that the scroll was rather “archived” than hidden in Cave 1. These results confirm the theory of Eliezer Sukenik who believed Cave 1 to be a “geniza”. A similar study of the Temple Scroll, discovered in the cave 11 indicates that the scroll was rather hidden than “archived”. Furthermore, only the sediments and objects found in this cave contain nitrate impurities, characteristic of the limestone caves inhabited by bats. We believe, therefore, that Cave 11 was an occasional hiding place for people unfamiliar with the terrain. We would like also to present another important aspect of our results: alteration of the original material introduced by the post-discovery interventions.