Cultural Anthropology

Gabriel Han
Sep 16
IHSS

Cultural Anthropology Blog

I read an article about the Dead Sea Scrolls, and a study around them conducted by MIT. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a series of ancient Hebrew texts that were discovered in 1947. The study was focused on one scroll known as the Temple scroll, out of the 900 or so scrolls. The scrolls were hidden in jars on hillsides north of the Dead Sea, often under debris. The reason the Temple scroll was chosen was because it is the largest and most well preserved of the scrolls, despite the fact that the material is incredibly thin, at only 1/250 of an inch thick. The study was to investigate how the parchment was made, and what it was made of. Results showed it was processed in a strange way, and made of odd ingredients like evaporates that differed from the normal ones. This raises questions such as how did they make it, or come up with the idea for it? Scientists believe that understanding this parchment could provide insights into the culture of the time, and allow for a better understanding of the culture. Unfortunately, efforts to open and read the scrolls have damaged them, ruining part of an important piece of history.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190908124614.htm

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