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

Newly Discovered Qumran Holding: World Museum Liverpool

March 7, 2019March 15, 2019Posted in Archaeology, artefacts, Ceramics, Other Organic Remains, Pottery, Textiles, UncategorizedTagged Gerald Lankaster Harding, Isabella Bossolino, John Henry "Harry" Iliffe;, Palestine Archaeological Museum;, Sandra Jacobs;, World Museum Liverpool4 Comments

The network team are delighted to report that following on from enquiries made by Joan Taylor, of the Museums of Liverpool, the curator Ashley Cooke found in their collections a Dead Sea Scroll jar and lid, and also linen. These had been purchased on 8 May, 1951 by the Liverpool Public Museums from the Palestine Archaeological Museum (represented by Gerald Lankaster Harding) for the sum of £50.00. At that time the curator in Liverpool was British archaeologist, John Henry ‘Harry’ Iliffe (1903-1960), whose museum career included posts as head of Classical collections at the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Toronto (1927-1931); the first keeper of the Palestine Archaeological Museum, now the Rockefeller Museum, in Jerusalem (1931-1948); and Director of Museums in Liverpool (1948-1959).

Kindly note that the above preliminary images, taken by Sandra Jacobs, include the exterior profile of the jar, and are copyrighted by the Network for the Study of Dispersed Qumran Cave Artefacts and Archives. These photographs may not be used by others for publication purposes. We are currently trying to identify the precise textile, but clearly it is from Qumran Cave 1Q:

We extremely grateful to Dr Ashley Cooke (featured in the main post photograph) for making the archival correspondence available to the network team to verify the authenticity of this acquisition, as well as his hospitality at the Museum’s off-site warehouse when Isabella Bossolino and Sandra Jacobs arrived from London to photograph and draw the jar and lid.

Off-site storage, World Museums Liverpool.

Further Work on Ashmolean Museum (Oxford) Jar and Lid

March 6, 2019March 15, 2019Posted in Archaeology, Caves, PotteryTagged Alison Pollard;, Ashmolean Museum;, Isabella Bossolino, Sandra Jacobs;Leave a comment

The team were also delighted that Isabella Bossolino, together with Sandra Jacobs, were able to view the Qumran jar and lid (AN1951.477 and AN1951.477.b,) in the Antiquities Study Room at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. with the assistance of curator Dr Alison Pollard, following up on an examination of the jar previously undertaken by Joan Taylor. This pottery was drawn by Isabella for our project. Kindly note that images shown below are copyrighted by the Network for the Study of Dispersed Qumran Cave Artefacts and Archives, and that they may not be used for publication purposes. Further photographs, drawings and examination notes on this and other materials in collections worldwide will shortly be available on this website.

Some information relating to this acquisition has been published by Rebecca Abrams in Chapter 8. “Dead Sea Scroll Jar,” in The Jewish Journey: 4000 Years in 22 Objects From the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2017), 57-63, where a photograph of the jar prior to its shipment from Jordan also appears. A copy of the Air France consignment note, identifying “jar with lid” is later provided on page 80 of the volume.

British Museum Jar and Lid – Documented 5 March 2019

March 5, 2019March 15, 2019Posted in Archaeology, artefacts, Caves, Pottery, UncategorizedTagged British Museum;, Christos Gerontinis;, Isabella Bossolino, Sandra Jacobs;Leave a comment

The Network has had the opportunity to visit the British Museum holdings of Qumran Cave 1Q materials on two previous occasions, and we are grateful to curator Jonathan Tubb for his assistance when Joan Taylor took photographs and examined the objects. These consist of a jar and lid, and also fragments of textile. On Tuesday 5 March Isabella Bossolino, accompanied by Dr Sandra Jacobs, examined and made drawings of the Qumran Cave 1Q jar and lid purchased by the British Museum from the Jordanian government. On this occasion the team would particularly like to thank Dr Christos Gerontinis for taking time out to lift, position, and assist us throughout our study. Kindly note that preliminary images shown below are copyrighted by the Network for the Study of Dispersed Qumran Cave Artefacts and Archives, and that they may not be used by others for publication purposes.

USA Data Collection Trip 11-21 November 2018

November 23, 2018March 23, 2019Posted in artefacts, PotteryTagged Dead Sea Scroll Jars, Dennis Mizzi, Endowment for Biblical Research, Harvard Semitic Museum;, Isabella Bossolino, Metropolitan Museum, Oriental Institute, Walters Art MuseumLeave a comment

In November 2018, DQCAAS organised the visit of Dennis Mizzi to the Oriental Institute (Chicago), the Metropolitan Museum (New York), the Walters Art Museum (Baltimore), the Harvard Semitic Museum (Boston), and the Endowment for Biblical Research (Boston), in order to carry out renewed analysis of Qumran jars and lids held in these collections. It was arranged that he would be accompanied with Ms. Isabella Bossolino who undertook technical drawings and created a photographic dossier.

The purpose of this trip was to examine the jars afresh and prepare these new drawings that would rectify some inaccuracies identified in the earlier ones. For instance, the jar at the Oriental Institute (Q45) – illustrated in the feature image – is slightly lop-sided, which is at odds with the symmetrical jar illustrated in the ÉBAF card index – published in M. Fidanzio and J.-B., “Finds from the Qumran Caves: Roland de Vaux’s Inventory of the Excavations (1949–1956),” in The Caves of Qumran: Proceedings of the International Conference, Lugano 2014 (STDJ 118; ed. M. Fidanzio; Leiden: Brill, 2016) 263–332 [293].

Notably also the jar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was reconstructed after it broke in transit. The reconstruction is better than the original one undertaken by the Palestine Archaeological Museum, but this also means that the drawing in DJD 1, Fig. 2:10 (jar Q40) is, therefore, inaccurate.

As part of our study for the Network, therefore, we sought to identify the objects in the museums and match them with the material excavated by de Vaux, in order to obtain a complete record of which jars are in which collection. This was made possible by correlating first-hand observations with the ÉBAF archival material and documents made available by the museums. Here, we would like to thank the respective curators for their warm welcome and for being forthcoming with all their records.

We are very grateful to Ms. Isabella Bossolino, who is a PhD candidate candidate at the University of Pavia and Université Panthéon-Sorbonne, whose interests include Etruscan and Greek art and archaeology, together with Early Iron Age Mediterranean iconography. Having received her B.A. in Classics from the Università degli Studi di Pavia, Italy, Isabella earned her M.Phil. in Archaeology and Art History for her work on “Malak Vanth: iconography and functions,” which won the 2014 Claudia Maccabruni prize for the best archaeology thesis. Her diploma thesis on “Neck, Shoulder, Body, Foot. Thoughts on the Anatomy of Vessels,” undertaken at the Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori, IUSS (Institute for Advanced Study of Pavia), is particularly useful for her work on our project, by providing technical drawings and digital images of the Qumran jars.

At present Isabella is writing her thesis on the late Iron Age and Archaic cemeteries of Kamiros, Rhodes, and is also in charge of the publication of the early Iron Age cemeteries of Kamiros, in addition to ceramic materials from excavations conducted by the University of Pavia in Verucchio, 2011 – 2017.