Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus. Series Archaeologica

Qumran Cave 11Q was discovered by Bedouin in 1956. In the cave, remains of around 30 Dead Sea Scrolls were found, a few of them in very good state of preservation (the Temple Scroll, the Psalm Scroll, the Paleo Leviticus Scroll, and the Targum Job Scroll). The cave was excavated by Roland de Vaux (École Biblique et Archéologique Française, Jerusalem) and Gerald L. Harding (Department of Antiquities of Jordan) in 1956; later by Joseph Patrich (University of Haifa) in 1988, and by Marcello Fidanzio and Dan Bahat (ISCAB FTL and Università della Svizzera Italiana) in 2017. Due to Roland de Vaux's premature death, the archaeology of Cave 11Q has never been published. This volume presents the final report on the 1956, 1988 and 2017 excavations at Cave 11Q. Next to discussing the physical characteristics and stratigraphy of the cave and offering a full analysis of non-textual finds, the volume for the first time presents many tiny manuscript fragments found in storerooms during recent work. These fragments, most of which were collected during 1956 excavation, have not been known until now. The volume, therefore, offers the final report of Cave 11Q excavations as well as the editio princeps of the new fragments, followed by a reevaluation of the entire set of texts found in this famous cave.

Die Publikation macht es möglich, insbesondere für die hellenistisch-frührömische Zeit die ersten ca. 25 Jahre der am Nordende des Sees Gennesaret seit 1987 durchgeführten Ausgrabung von et-Tell nachzuvollziehen, und sie lässt für diesen Zeitraum den letzten Stand der auch für die neutestamentliche Forschung wichtigen Grabung erkennen. Die Grabung wird von dem israelischen Archäologen Prof. Dr. Rami Arav geleitet; der Verfasser ist Professor für Neues Testament und Kodirektor des Bethsaida Excavations Project. Die Grabung hat gezeigt, dass et-Tell gleichzusetzen ist mit Betsaida/Julias, das z. B. im Neuen Testament (siebenmal), bei dem jüdischen Historiker Josephus und in der rabbinischen Literatur erwähnt wird. Der Band, der weit über 100 Abbildungen, zu einem großen Teil in Farbe, enthält, verfolgt also ein doppeltes Ziel: Zum einen kann aufgrund der 15 gesammelten Aufsätze in Deutsch und Englisch und der fortlaufenden Münchner Ausgrabungspläne der entdeckten Schichten von Eisenzeit IIA und hellenistisch-römischer Zeit der Verlauf der Grabung von Anfang an verfolgt werden (die gefalzten Pläne in doppeltem Seitenformat), zum anderen geben die Nachträge zu den veröffentlichten Aufsätzen sowie der letzte unveröffentlichte Aufsatz den jüngsten Stand der Grabung wieder. Der Verfasser richtet den Blick öfter speziell auf die erste Hälfte des 1. Jh. n.Chr. und das historisch-kritisch nachweisbare Wirken Jesu in Betsaida (gemäß Mt 11,21–23 parallel Lk 10,13–15).

For 60 years Qumran research has been focused on epigraphy, exegesis, and the historical sources of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The manuscripts are now published and accessible, and research is turning in a positive way to the archaeology of the site and its context. The time has come to provide researchers with a complete documentation. The excavator, Roland de Vaux, had given preliminary reports and a valuable interpretation made in the immediate aftermath of the excavations. Since considerable progress has been made in the archeology of Hellenistic and Roman Palestine, however, Qumran has to be reassessed and the interpretation objectively verified.Volume IIIA presents an up-to-date archaeological reconsideration: a shorter and more precise chronology, in which the earthquake of 31 BC is deleted; the concept of an Essene community is challenged, owing to the lack of a suitable infrastructure; the cemetery itself is connected with a Jewish diaspora scattered around the Dead Sea. Other facilities strengthen the Jewish character of the site, however. The function of Qumran fits better with the rites of a pilgrimage on the occasion of the festivals of Passover and Pentecost.In the second part, the peripheral Essene facilities, expanded around an earlier Hellenistic center, are analyzed and described. The essay seeks to outline their internal consistency and to determine their function. The restoration of a stratigraphy, by cross-checking the excavation archives, leads to a redistribution of pottery in four levels in a more precise chronology.The reconsideration makes use of anthropology, which opens up the archaeological field and throws additional light on the manuscripts.

For 60 years Qumran research has been focused on epigraphy, exegesis, and the historical sources of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The manuscripts are now published and accessible, and research is turning in a positive way to the archaeology of the site and its context. The time has come to provide researchers with a complete documentation. The excavator, Roland de Vaux, had given preliminary reports and a valuable interpretation made in the immediate aftermath of the excavations. Since considerable progress has been made in the archeology of Hellenistic and Roman Palestine, however, Qumran has to be reassessed and the interpretation objectively verified.Volume IIIA presents an up-to-date archaeological reconsideration: a shorter and more precise chronology, in which the earthquake of 31 BC is deleted; the concept of an Essene community is challenged, owing to the lack of a suitable infrastructure; the cemetery itself is connected with a Jewish diaspora scattered around the Dead Sea. Other facilities strengthen the Jewish character of the site, however. The function of Qumran fits better with the rites of a pilgrimage on the occasion of the festivals of Passover and Pentecost.In the second part, the peripheral Essene facilities, expanded around an earlier Hellenistic center, are analyzed and described. The essay seeks to outline their internal consistency and to determine their function. The restoration of a stratigraphy, by cross-checking the excavation archives, leads to a redistribution of pottery in four levels in a more precise chronology.The reconsideration makes use of anthropology, which opens up the archaeological field and throws additional light on the manuscripts.

The Qumran coins (hoard and single finds) are worthy of a novel. They were perfectly examined by H. Seyrig and A. Spijkerman, then the popular conviction spread that the coins had been lost. In fact, they were always kept where they had been classified. Now they are finally published and provide the possibility to suggest that Qumran was a very open centre for trade and transactions, at least from finally the end of the second century BC until the destruction of the site in 70/72 CE. This documentation provides a new reasoning on effective data – not on assumptions.

On a monetary basis, Magdala must be considered as one of the most important and active settlements between the 1st century BC and most of the 3rd century AD on Lake Kinneret, a place of production and trade, of supply for military forces, certainly in contact with other trading centres, probably located on the Mediterranean coast, however in a 'market' perspective quite different from our current experience and even from the semantic content of this word, often abused with a semantic extension that does not correspond to the experience of the ancients. Its monetary decline started on the early 4th century, when the economic and monetary strategies of the Constantinian era shifted the flow of money to other routes, especially between the great port cities of the Mediterranean. The welcome contribution of Callegher's study derives from the new data published, which allows us to overcome "clichés" and a stereotypical view of both the archaeological site and the economy of the Upper Galilee.

In 1885, a large hypogeum was discovered at the Saint-Étienne Compound, the domain acquired only two and a half years before by the Dominicans on the western slope of El Heidhemiyeh hill, about 250 m north of the Jerusalem Ottoman wall. After the unearthing of a second large hypogeum, only fifty metres north of Hypogeum 1, in their monumental work on the history of Jerusalem, the two eminent Dominican scholars Louis-Hugues Vincent and Felix-Marie Abel proposed to date the two burial complexes to the Hellenistic or Roman period. This dating remained unchallenged until the survey of 1974–75, carried out by the distinguished Israeli archaeologists Gabriel Barkay and Amos Kloner, who proposed to date the two burial caves towards the end of the Judahite kingdom, on the basis of an unsystematic comparison of few architectural features with those of other tombs. In the frame of the improved knowledge of the broad and adjacent archaeological contexts since the last study of the Saint-Étienne Compound Hypogea, between 2011 and 2014 Riccardo Lufrani carried out a detailed survey of the two burial caves, providing new and more detailed photographic, topographic, archaeological and geological documentation. The systematic comparison of the significant architectural features of the Saint-Étienne Compound Hypogea with a consistent sample of 22 tombs in the region suggest dating the hewing of the two hypogea to the Early Hellenistic period, shedding a new light on the history of Jerusalem.

»Cliff Shelters and Hiding Complexes in Galilee during the Early Roman Period« is the result of years of intensive study conducted by Yinon Shivtiel throughout Galilee combining historical, archaeological, and speleological research. The author documents and describes all the Galilean sites so far discovered containing the traces of underground cavities hewn out and readied by Jews as refuges and hiding places during the Early Roman period. The study relies on accounts in two of Flavius Josephus' works, The Jewish War and The Life of Josephus, where Josephus records that the Jewish population in Galilee prepared two types of underground chambers for use in times of adversity, defined in the research as »cliff shelters« and »hiding complexes«. During the author's comprehensive fieldwork, which is thoroughly documented and described in the book, it became clear that the first method exploited natural caves whose openings were located at the top of steep cliffs, most of which could only be reached by rock climbing or rappelling with the aid of ropes. The many finds from these shelters shed light on their extensive use during the Early Roman period. Where no naturally fortified cliffs existed, the Jews of Galilee resorted to quarrying out underground hiding complexes. The book details the evidence and finds from the different forms of hiding complexes discovered beneath the remains of many of the Jewish settlements in Galilee chronicled by Flavius Josephus. Research into these complexes has revealed their resemblance to similar hiding systems discovered in the Judean plain. The book is copiously illustrated with plans, figures and photographs of both types of underground chambers and it discusses their connection with the desperate times faced by the Jews in Galilee throughout the entire Early Roman period, particularly during the Great Revolt.