TWO ARTICLES ON THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS:

DNA to reveal source of Dead Sea Scrolls (Jerusalem Post)
By SARAH KATZ

Authorities are hoping that DNA testing of animal bones discovered in excavations at the Qumran plateau will reveal the origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls. . . .

Prof. Oren Gutfield of Hebrew University, who participated in the excavations, is attempting to ascertain the relationship between the scrolls and their place of discovery.

"What we will do now are DNA tests to these bones in order to compare DNA results from these animals with DNA of the Dead Sea Scrolls parchment. A connection was never found between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the site itself, but if a match is found it means that the people who lived in Qumran actually prepared the scrolls from animals at the site itself," Gutfield said.

[...]

Archaeologists insist there was a community at Qumran (Ha'aretz)
By Amiram Barkat

The Qumran myth is alive and well, despite recent attempts to disprove it, according to archaeologists digging at the site.
The archaeologists, who are financed by Christian fundamentalist organizations, believe that despite recent theories to the contrary, there was a community at the place sometimes called "the oldest monastery in the Western world."

The archaeologists said at a news conference yesterday that they intend to find the proof that the residents of the site indeed wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, found in nearby caves.

[...]

Fingerprinting DSS DNA

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Ancient DNA extracted from Dead Sea Scrolls parchments allows rare glimpse into world of Second Temple Judaism. The researchers developed sophisticated methods to deduce information from tiny amounts of ancient DNA, used different controls to validate the findings, and carefully filtered out potential contaminations (IAA press release, courtesy of the Israel Ministry for Foreign Affairs).

PaleoJudaica has long been interested in DNA analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Back in 2009, I collected links to a number of relevant posts. And in 2006 I was noting mention of early research aimed at sorting fragments into scrolls based on their DNA. It looks as though specialists have made quite a lot of progress since then.

The press release mentions a few specific cases. Two fragments of the Book of Jeremiah now definitely form a separate manuscript, made of cow hide rather than the more common sheep hide. This confirms that the Qumran library included variant copies of scriptural (and other) books that had somewhat different texts.

The manuscript of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice found at Masada is made from the hide of a sheep whose DNA is distinct from the from the sheep who hides were normally used for the Qumran scrolls. Arguably, then, it originated from a different group. But I would like to see some more details before I am convinced that we can interpret the evidence that precisely.

Likewise, the DNA of a fragment of Isaiah had a different profile from the other Qumran manuscripts. It is possible that indicates that it came from somewhere other than the Qumran caves.

These are intriguing findings, but they are still very preliminary, based on testing of a small sample of fragments. As the researchers profile more scrolls, we will learn more with more confidence.

The full, very technical, article is published in Cell: Illuminating Genetic Mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Follow the link for the full list of authors.

An article in the Smithsonian opens with a human interest account of how the idea for the research originated in a chance encounter on a bus: Ancient DNA Yields New Clues to Dead Sea Scrolls. A sensitive genetic fingerprinting technique could help scholars learn more from thousands of fragile parchment fragments (Josie Glausiusz).

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

TECHNOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS is surveyed in this article:

Analyzing Dead Sea Scrolls evolves from carbon to DNA

By TOM PAULSON
P-I REPORTER

From the very beginning, science and technology have played a critical role in the authentication, restoration and analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

"There have been a number of remarkable technological achievements that have helped us better understand the scrolls," said Scott Noegel, a University of Washington expert on Near Eastern languages and literature.

"I think the coolest has been the use of DNA analysis," added R. Bryce Seidl, president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Science Center.

[...]

MORE ON THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBIT AT THE HOUSTON MUSEUM OF SCIENCE (Houston Chronicle), including comments from Professor Mattias Henze of Rice University and other local scholars.

"Advance ticket sales have been phenomenal," said Lydia Baehr, public relations director of the museum. More than 13,000 tickets have been sold, the most in the museum's history, she said.

Also, The San Marcos Daily Record has an article on Randall Price and the recent Qumran excavation. As I've said before, it sounds to me as though he's overreading the evidence, but it's hard to say what it all means until a formal report comes out.

This sounds exciting:

A series of DNA tests is set to be performed on the bones found by Price and his team, because the Dead Sea Scrolls were written on the animal's skin. A test could confirm that the DNA of the skin matches that of the bones - thus showing that the same community that buried the bones also posessed the scrolls.

And so does this:

While this mode of work is significant in uncovering pieces of world history, Price would like to bring this world to his native community of San Marcos.

Price said he's considering the idea of bringing a museum to San Marcos. This museum could contain many of the discoveries found in the Middle East by Price and his colleagues - pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Egyptian artifacts were offered as possible examples.

You can find more on the debate over recent excavations at Qumran here.

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: DNA profiling is being applied to medieval manuscripts:

How Old Is That Book? DNA May Hold the Answer
Hide and Seek: genetic material from animal-skin pages may trace medieval manuscript origins

By Katherine Harmon (Scientific American)

Long before musty old paper volumes and Google Book Search, most tomes in medieval Europe were written on animal skins—a practice which might now hold the key to tracing their origins.

Timothy Stinson, an associate English professor at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, has started using DNA testing to track the history and age of medieval manuscripts. His goal: to create a DNA database from the books with known publication dates and places (such as calendars and histories) in an effort to use the genetic information gleaned from them as a baseline to date those manuscripts whose backgrounds are unknown.

"There are these tantalizing hints that this would work for parchment," he says of the DNA testing, "but no one was really using it." He says that in addition to tracing the roots of written documents, genetic clues may help piece together manuscripts that were separated over time.

[...]

DNA testing has previously been used to study Greek manuscripts as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Nikos Poulakakis, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Crete in Greece who conducted some of that research, says he's eagerly awaiting the results of the U.S. study. He notes that in addition to revealing important information about old manuscripts and library collections, the genetic material may also shed light on ancient trade routes and even domestic animal herds of the time.

[...]

I've posted on DNA analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. The application to medieval manuscripts is also welcome and could be useful, for example, for studying Old Testament Pseudepigrapha manuscripts, most of which are medieval.

GOAT DNA AND THE SCROLLS:

How goat skin DNA solved Dead Sea scrolls mystery
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH (Jerusalem Post)

Scientists at the Hebrew University's Koret School for Veterinary Science near Rishon Lezion are helping to piece together some of the 10,000 fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls found decades ago in Qumran by examining the DNA profiles of the goats whose skin was used to make the parchment and reducing the number of possible matches.

Dr. Galia Kahila Bar-Gal said during a journalists' tour at the nearby Hebrew University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, where students learn and treat animals, that she and colleagues were looking at genetic forms from each fragment to know which came from specific animals. Once they know that two pieces came from the skin of the same animal, it is easier to piece them together, she said.

[...]

A new head of the IAA's DSS unit

INTERVIEW: What is the future of the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls? The new head of the Israel Antiquities Authority Dead Sea Scrolls Unit, archaeologist Joe Uziel, spoke to ‘The Jerusalem Post’ about his vision for his tenure (Rossella Tercatin).

Indeed, the dilemma of whether to preserve the scrolls for future generations or to advance research is one of the fundamental questions that the staff of the unit faces on a daily basis, considering how some of the most interesting research avenues, such as carbon dating or DNA analysis, involve some damage of the material.

“For example, we ask ourselves if today is the time to conduct radio-carbon analysis on the scrolls, when perhaps in one, three or five years, the techniques might be much more developed and less invasive,” Uziel pointed out.

Without expressing a view on this specific question, I note that I have been saying for some time that non-invasive and non-destructive technologies are the future of archaeology. I have some thoughts on related issues here. For lots of specific cases, start here and follow the links.

I noted the 2020 retirement of Pnina Shor, the former director of the unit, here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

The DSS and new technologies

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: How New Technologies Are Unraveling the Dead Sea Scrolls’ Secrets (VIDEO). DNA analysis, artificial intelligence and particle accelerators shed light on ancient artifacts (Maya Margit, The Media Line).

For PaleoJudaica posts on the use of some new technologies on the Dead Sea Scrolls etc., see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, and follow the links.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

NEW TECHNOLOGY: DNA PROFILING AND DATING OF PARCHMENT MANUSCRIPTS.

DNA could help date ancient manuscripts (Cambridge News via Archaeologica News)

By Rose Taylor

A TECHNIQUE being developed in Cambridge could help identify the date and place of origin of ancient manuscripts.

Biochemist Christopher Howe and colleagues are working on a method that will reveal which species of animal a particular parchment comes from.

By extracting the DNA of a parchment, using a technique called polymerase chain reaction, amplifying it and studying the sequence, the scientists hope to find the skin used to produce it.

Dr Howe, who works at Cambridge University's Department of Biochemistry, said: "Once you know which species of animal the parchment comes from, you might be able to see if other sheets of parchment came from the same animal using genetic finger-printing.

"Then, if you had a book whose origins you are not sure about, you could show it had similar DNA as the other parchment and you could say it came from a similar flock.

[�]

The potential applications to the Dead Sea Scrolls and related manuscripts are obvious.

Samuel Iwry's son

SAMUEL IWRY'S SON is a financial official in Washington:

The Scholar Of Savings

(Dow Jones) Interpreting the Bible and retirement policy typically don't mix.

Unless you are J. Mark Iwry. The son of a Dead Sea Scroll scholar and a descendant of mystical 17th-century rabbi Baal Shem Tov, he also is a uniquely powerful Washington wonk, almost single-handedly guiding the nation's approach to retirement accounts and policy.

Iwry's job, as the Treasury Department's senior benefits official, is to figure out what the government can and can't do to boost retirement savings. He is currently promoting "auto-IRAs," the top retirement item in the Obama administration's budget, which will be introduced to Congress within a few weeks.

Overhauling retirement-plan policies involves interpreting arcane and often ambiguous provisions in the U.S. tax code, then getting employers and lawmakers to go along with proposed changes.

"He's sort of like a biblical scholar," says Norman Stein, professor of law at Drexel University. "He's interested in trying to deal with the technical and policy together, to get the technical to serve the policy."

[...]

Iwry—who lives near Washington with his wife, Daryl Lander, a lawyer in solo practice, and his college-bound son—may have a tolerance for complexity in his DNA.

His father, Samuel Iwry, was a Bible scholar in Poland who joined the resistance during World War II, and made his way to Shanghai, where he negotiated with the British to allow Jewish families to emigrate from Asia to Palestine. He married the woman who nursed him back to health after he was imprisoned by the Japanese, and the couple moved to the U.S., where the senior Iwry became a professor at Johns Hopkins University and worked to decode the Dead Sea Scrolls.

For someone who chooses his words as if he is giving a deposition, the younger Iwry has the unlikely distinction, along with humorist Dave Barry, of being among the most quoted in the recently published "As Certain as Death: Quotations About Taxes," by Jeffery L. Yablon, a tax partner in the Washington office of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.

In one, Iwry compares the tax code to the Bible: "Of only one other book can it be said . . . that great minds have devoted countless hours to the scrutiny and learned exegesis of every passage; that differing interpretations of the text have given rise to some of humanity's most epic struggles; and that, while millions mine it for valuable insights and inspiration, those who claim to live by the book and follow its precepts probably far outnumber those who actually do so."

THE SEATTLE DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION is covered in the Longview Daily News. It's the usual sort of survey piece, but it lists each exhibited scroll and gives some information on it, sometimes in garbled form. But there's this interesting aside:

The actual researchers have modern-day science on their side. Because most of the scrolls were written on animal skins, scientists can match DNA to piece the puzzle together. It can take them a month to conserve three or four fragments.

I've always thought that DNA analysis should be used someday to connect up otherwise unidentifiable scroll fragments (and to verify connections made on other grounds). If this paragraph is accurate, it seems that this process has begun, which is good.

INTERESTING ARTICLE in the Jerusalem Post on "Priestly Paternity Tests," which reviews a book on DNA testing to establish priestly descent and a Jewish DNA profile in general. I don't know anything about the technicalities of DNA testing and I have no idea how well founded the studies are. The claim is:

Dr. Harry Ostrer, chairman of the Human Genetics Program at New York University, sums it up: "Recent work from genetics labs has validated the biblical record of a Semitic people who chose a Jewish way of life several thousand years ago. These observations are the biological equivalent to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls."

MANUSCRIPTS, MANUSCRIPTS, MANUSCRIPTS! Yesterday evening, Dirk Jongkind, a Cambridge doctoral student (who, bless his heart, gave me coffee in the Divinity Faculty building this morning) gave a paper on his research on the physical features of the Codex Sinaiticus (see online abstracts). Fun fact I learned: 1-4 Maccabees were already labeled numerically as such in this period (4th century-ish) and 1 and 4 Maccabees appear in Sinaiticus labeled as such. His project is good news, because this sort of thing desperately needs to be done.

This morning John W. Welch gave a paper on "The Use of Multispectral Imaging in Working with New Testament Manuscripts." He started out with a Qumran Scroll (4QGenb) which is so blackened that it is almost totally illegible to the naked eye and on a normal photograph, but which can be read easily from an infra-red photo. As it happens, I published that manuscript and worked closely with the original in the Rockefeller Museum. For some of the other Genesis/Exodus scrolls I published, it was helpful to see the original in person and I was even able to establish one or two important readings from a naked-eye examination. But not for 4QGenb: most of it is unreadable and the infra-red photograph is effectively the primary evidence for its text. In my popular lectures on the Scrolls I use slides of it to illustrate the same point made in Professor Welch's lecture.

Professor Welch's project also is working with the carbonized manuscripts of the Petra Papyri and the Herculaneum library, and other texts as well. They are able to make the invisible text on many of these blackened manuscripts stand out so that it is easily readable on their photographs.

In the discussion someone asked if we even need the manuscripts any more after this sort of imaging has been done to them. Everyone agreed that we do, if only for their sentimental value! I think a more important reason, which didn't come up in the discussion, is that we need the manuscripts because new technologies (e.g., the burgeoning field of molecular technology) will allow us to extract new information from them which we can't even imagine now.

Professor Welch also commented to me afterwards that DNA analysis has established that the parchment of the Dead Sea Scrolls were mostly made from the hide of ibexes, which I hadn't know before.

Excellent conference.

A Polymath Award for Prof. Oded Rechavi

CONGRATULATIONS TO PROF. RECHAVI AND TO TAU: TAU prof. receives rare, unrestricted grant of $2.5 mil. "The Polymaths Award is different. They tell you: 'Here are the resources. Do something completely new, take risks. Investigate wild ideas'" (Tobias Siegal, Jerusalem Post).

In another study, Rechavi and his team assisted in decoding the Dead Sea Scrolls through the DNA of the parchments on which they were written, shedding more light on the history of the late Second Temple period.

For more on that project, see here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

MORE ON THE ZACHARIAH INSCRIPTION AT ABSALOM'S TOMB (Ha'aretz, via Bible and Intepretation News). In this long article, Joe Zias tells about the two years of work it took to get adequate photographs of the inscription, about his work on the DNA of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and about 9000-year-old lice found on ancient combs in caves. Emile Puech tells about the inscription's decipherment. There's also information about research on the tomb itself. Plus much more. I won't excerpt anything, because you should read it all.