Qumran und die Archäologie

During the last ten or fifteen years archaeology has gained an increasingly prominent role in Qumran studies. Well-established views on the character and function of the settlement at Khirbet Qumran have been questioned, and some scholars even denied the connection between the settlement and the scrolls found in the vicinity. The volume presents the papers of a conference in 2008, together with some substantial additions. It aims at a renewed encounter between scholars working with texts and scholars interpreting archaeological contexts and artifacts. Thus the contributions discuss theoretical issues of the relationship between those different areas of studies. They highlight new archaeological insights about Khirbet Qumran and its vicinity and also the issue of the character and the unity of the library of Qumran. Furthermore, they discuss artifacts found at Qumran and architectural concepts represented in Qumran texts in order to get a more precise view of the relationship between the textual worlds and the »outside world«.