Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Mysterious jars buried at Qumran

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Baffling Burials. The meaning of jar burials at Khirbet Qumran (Marek Dospěl).
At Khirbet Qumran, the ancient settlement associated with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, excavations uncovered a seemingly illogical couple of graves. Among ordinary graves that contained human burials belonging to many of Qumran’s ancient inhabitants, there were at least two with no human remains. Instead, these two graves, located just east of the main settlement, contained intact jars with date honey residue: five jars in one grave, and ten in the other.

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This BHD essay summarizes a current-issue BAR article by Dennis Mizzi. The article itself is behind the subscription wall.

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