SOTS (Society for Old Testament Study) Centenary Presentation

July 19, 2017July 5, 2018Posted in Archaeology, Archives & Collections, Caves, Network, Pottery, Textiles, Written Memoirs & DocumentsTagged Cave 11Q, Cave 1Q, King's College London, Qumran Caves, Society for Old Testament StudyLeave a comment

At the recent SOTS (Society for Old Testament Study) Centenary Meeting, held at King’s College, London, the team reviewed the aims and achievements of the project, and explained how they are making available new findings via the website (www.dqcaas.com). Together with the project’s anticipated publications, the network is also feeding data towards a new book series on the archaeology of the Qumran caves edited by J. B. Humbert and M. Fidanzio. The very first volume of this series (on Cave 11Q) will be appearing next year. To date, the team have concentrated on materials connected with Qumran Cave 1Q and 11Q. In regard to Cave 1Q, there has been a particular focus on the jars dispersed around the globe in various museums and collections. Cave 11Q linen has been radiocarbon dated with interesting results. The photographic collection of the Allegro archive in Manchester Museum is currently being digitised, and other archival materials elsewhere continue to be identified. The network investigators concluded by informing the audience that they are keen to hear from anyone with photographs and materials of the Qumran caves from the 1950s and 1960s.

Copper Scroll Images from Allegro Archive

February 14, 2017July 5, 2018Posted in Archives & Collections, Film Archives, Scrolls, Written Memoirs & DocumentsTagged Copper Scroll, John Marco Allegro, Manchester Institute of Technology, Professor Wright Baker, The Maverick of the Dead Sea Scrolls;Leave a comment

C.OPENING.13 - 72 DPI for 14 Feb 17 Post — Images reproduced by permission of the Allegro estate; courtesy of Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester. Please refer any image copyright and reproduction requests to collections@manchester.ac.uk

In addition to digitising the extensive collection of photographs taken by John Allegro, a number of images feature in Judith Brown’s biography of her father, John Marco Allegro: The Maverick of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Grand Rapids, Michigan and Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans, 2005), which have also been made available to the Network. This picture of Professor Wright Baker, from the former Manchester College of Technology (now UMIST), shows him here in profile working on the Copper Scroll, complements the film footage which the project has digitised and made freely available on our recent post at https://dqcaas.com/2016/11/24/1953-film-of-cutting-open-of-the-copper-scroll

Work Starting on Allegro Archive in Manchester

January 16, 2017July 5, 2018Posted in Archives & Collections, Photographs, Written Memoirs & DocumentsTagged 1960s, George Brooke;, Helen Bond;, John Marco Allegro, Judith Brown, microfiche;, October 1953, Search in the DesertLeave a comment

AQ.65.1_Allegro_72dpi — John Marco Allegro. Image (AQ.65.1) reproduced with permission of the Allegro Estate; courtesy of the Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester. For copyright and reproduction requests please contact collections@manchester.ac.uk

Approximately 1471 photographs of the initial excavations Khirbet Qumran and its vicinity, including the caves, were taken by John Marco Allegro, from his arrival in Jerusalem in October 1953 through to his ‘Search in the Desert’ work in the 1960s. This entire collection was donated to the Manchester Museum by Mrs Judith Brown. John Allegro’s daughter, and later made available as microfiche images published by George Brooke and Helen Bond: The Allegro Qumran Photograph Collection: Supplement to the Dead Sea Scrolls on Microfiche (ed. G. Brooke with H.K. Bond; Leiden, New York & Köln, E.J. Brill and IDC, 1996). As part of the project’s commitment to study archival documentation and photographs, these images are being digitized as part of the Network project’s activities by Sandra Jacobs.

Manchester Reconnaissance Trip

August 14, 2016July 5, 2018Posted in Archives & Collections, Bibliographies, Other Organic Remains, Photographs, QCD Links, Written Memoirs & DocumentsTagged Allegro Qumran Photograph Collection, John Rylands Museum, Manchester University Museum John Rylands Museum, Ronald Reed ArchiveLeave a comment

Initial exploration of the following collections:

The Ronald Reed Archive at the John Rylands Museum, Manchester 11 August 2016, with Elizabeth Gow (Manuscript Curator and Archivist).Visit John Rylands Library Site

Allegro archive in the Manchester University Museum with Collections Access Officer Jamilla Hawa, together with Deputy Head of Collections and Curator of Archaeology Bryan Sitch. These included four boxes of Allegro photographs, largely composed of laminated black and white prints that have previously been made into microfiche images and annotated in the publication by George Brooke and Helen Bond.The Allegro Qumran Photograph Collection: Supplement to the Dead Sea Scrolls on Microfiche (ed. G. Brooke with H.K. Bond; Leiden, New York & Köln, E.J. Brill and IDC, 1996).

Visit Manchester University Museum Main Site

PEF(Palestine Exploration Fund) Photos, Slides & Records

June 6, 2016July 5, 2018Posted in Archives & Collections, Photographs, Written Memoirs & DocumentsTagged British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, Palestine Exploration Fund, Rev. Robert Pitt, Slide collections, Survey of Western PalestineLeave a comment

From the wealth of materials stored at the Palestine Exploration Fund: http://www.pef.org.uk/collections/, the following resources were examined over several visits:

PEF minute books from 1936-1966.
Uncatalogued slide collections.
Reverend Robert Pitt Photographic Archives (nine boxes).
BSAJ Minute Book (Kenyon Institute, formerly the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem), from 1946-1958.

The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs – Topography, Orthography, Hydrography, and Archaeology, Volume II Sheets VIL-XVL Samaria (London: Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 1882), which serves as a historical memoir of the early record of the site is also now available online at: http://archive.org/search.php?query=Survey%20of%20Western%20Palestine2Ceramic

See further photographs from Bart Wagemakers and Joan E. Taylor, “New Photographs of the Qumran Excavations from 1954 and Interpretations of L.77 and L.86,” in Palestine Exploration Quarterly Volume 143, No. 2 (July 2011): 134-156. http://www.pef.org.uk/qumran/