Tag Archives: Dead Sea Scrolls

New Radiocarbon Analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls

An important new study of the Dead Sea Scrolls has just been published (open access!) in the journal PLOS One: Mladen Popović et al., “Dating ancient manuscripts using radiocarbon and AI-based writing style analysis,” PLOS One 2025. In some ways, … Continue reading

Posted in Dead Sea Scrolls, Frank Moore Cross, Palaeography, Radiocarbon analysis | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

7Q5 and Appeals to Authority, Part 1: Orsolina Montevecchi

I am fascinated by the Wikipedia entry for 7Q5, which seems to continuously bounce back and forth between being useful and informative to being goofy and borderline incoherent. 7Q5 is a tiny fragment of papyrus found in Cave 7Q at … Continue reading

Posted in 7Q5, Dead Sea Scrolls, Orsolina Montevecchi | Tagged , , , , , , | 16 Comments

The Lying Pen of Scribes Project: An Appreciation

Over the last few years, I have had a number of occasions to mention The Lying Pen of Scribes, a project on the Dead Sea Scrolls funded by the Research Council of Norway. In fact, it may not be quite … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Market, Archaeological context, Dead Sea Scrolls, Fakes and Forgeries | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Gerald Lankester Harding’s Qumran Cave 1Q Excavation Photos

I think a copy of Gerald Lankester Harding’s photographs of the Cave 1Q manuscripts as they were being excavated in 1949 may be at the École biblique in Jerusalem. The back story: When I was writing an article on the … Continue reading

Posted in Archaeological context, Dead Sea Scrolls, Find Stories | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Another Photo of Muhammad ed-Dhib

Thanks to Asaf Gayer for pointing out that there is another excellent photo of Muhammad ed-Dhib to add to the small group of photos of the alleged finders of the first scrolls that I discussed in an earlier post. This … Continue reading

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Photos from the 1950 Duke Exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Thanks to Alexander Schick for pointing out the digitization of photos in the Duke University Archives related to the exhibition at Duke of the Dead Sea Scrolls that were in the possession of Mar Samuel in 1950. There are some … Continue reading

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Photos of the First Finders of the Dead Sea Scrolls

In my last post I unpacked the story of what seems to be the earliest published photograph of the alleged finders of the first Dead Sea Scrolls: This picture was taken in 1951 by Richmond Brown, and published (I think) … Continue reading

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The Earliest Photo of the Man Who Discovered the First Dead Sea Scrolls?

When I was looking into the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls that are said to have been found in Cave 1Q a few years ago, I became interested in the early surviving videos and photographs of the scrolls and … Continue reading

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Better Images of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Vatican

I mentioned in a post in 2021 that the Vatican Museum had on display two small fragments of animal hide with Hebrew letters that are identified as “inscribed fragments of Qumran scrolls.” They were donated in 2001 from the personal … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Market, Dead Sea Scrolls | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The Strange “nu” Story of 7Q5

Someone has done a real number on the Wikipedia page for 7Q5. [[Update 20 March 2022: I see that a good citizen has cleaned up some of the Wikipedia page. The version I cited is here. Let’s hope the page … Continue reading

Posted in 7Q5, Dead Sea Scrolls, José O'Callaghan | Tagged | 20 Comments