Publications – Network for the Study of Dispersed Qumran Cave Artefacts and Archival Sources (DQCAAS)

Final Report on the Excavations at Cave 11Q Now Published

January 22, 2020Posted in Archaeology, Caves, Network, Publications, Qumran excavations, Uncategorized1 Comment

Cave 11Q is the only cave that has remained unpublished out of all those where manuscripts were found in the 20th century. It was discovered by Ta’amireh Bedouin in early 1956 and excavations were carried out in the same year by Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux. In 1988, the cave was excavated again by Joseph Patrich and most recently (2017) by Marcello Fidanzio and Dan Bahat.

In 2016 the Qumran Caves Publication Project (EBAF – ISCAB-FTL) resumed the work for a full publication of all the Qumran caves excavated by Roland de Vaux. The final report on the excavations at Cave 11Q is now published: Jean-Baptiste Humbert and Marcello Fidanzio, eds., Khirbet Qumrân et Aïn Feshkha: Vol. IV A: Cave 11Q: Archaeology and New Scroll Fragments (NTOA.SA 8A; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019).

The DQCAAS network has actively contributed to this publication, with all its members: Marcello Fidanzio is director of the Qumran Caves Publication Project and co-editor of the volume, Joan Taylor and Dennis Mizzi are authors of studies on archaeological materials. This volume includes important results of radiocarbon dating of textiles funded by DQCAAS.

See: Contents

Award Time

November 3, 2019Posted in Publications, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The Caves of Qumran. edited by one of our DQCAAS team members, Marcello Fidanzio, has won the 2019 Biblical Archaeology Society award for the best scholarly book. Other team members Dennis Mizzi and Joan Taylor contributed chapters to this volume, along with many other Qumran experts. This book is the proceedings of an excellent conference held in Lugano in 2014, and we are all delighted with this result. Well done Marcello for all your amazing work.

New Publication: Revisiting Qumran Cave 1Q and Its Archaeological Assemblage

December 18, 2017July 5, 2018Posted in Archaeology, Caves, Pottery, PublicationsTagged 1949 excavations;, Amman, Cave 1Q, Jerusalem, scroll jars;4 Comments

Just published by Professor Joan Taylor, Dr Dennis Mizzi, and Professor Marcello Fidanzio, “Revisiting Qumran Cave 1Q and Its Archaeological Assemblage,” Palestine Exploration Quarterley 149/4 (2017): 295-325.

Abstract: Qumran Cave 1Q was the first site of Dead Sea scroll discoveries. Found and partly emptied by local Bedouin, the cave was excavated officially in 1949 and published in the series Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (Volume 1) in 1955. Contents of the cave are found in collections worldwide, and in different institutions in Jerusalem and Amman. While the scrolls are the most highly prized artefacts from this cave, in archaeological terms they are part of an assemblage that needs to be understood holistically in order to make conclusions about its character and dating. This study presents all of the known items retrieved from the cave, including those that are currently lost, in order to consider what we might know about the cave prior to its emptying and the changes to its form. It constitutes preliminary work done as part of the Leverhulme funded International Network for the Study of Dispersed Qumran Caves Artefacts and Archival Sources.

Electronic access to this article is available via Taylor and Francis