ALBERT MATHIESON QUENNELL, M.SC. F.G.S.

The two methods of projected profiles and reconstructed streamprofiles are applied in a geomorphic study of the region onboth sides of the Dead Sea Rift. This supplements an earlierstudy of the tectonics.

There are three recognizable surfacesat high levels.
The earliest is cut partly in Eocene marinesediments. On both the Arabia and the Sinai–Palestineblocks the third surface has been well preserved and extendsfar into central Arabia. Warping, tilting and local uplift whichaffected these early erosion surfaces are related to the firstphase of horizontal movement on the wrench-faults of the Rift.

Along some sectors tendency to oblique overthrusting and underthrustingcaused the downwarping or upwarping of the margins of the blocks; along others the margins separated and there was an absenceof distortion. There followed a period of quiescence, and base-levelchanged negatively and then remained stationary on more thanseven occasions. The last major still-stand was interruptedby a second phase of horizontal movement on the Rift faults,which is continuing. Except for the outpouring of the plateaubasalts of the Hauran of southern Syria, volcanism in the regionwas confined almost entirely to the Arabia block south of Amman.It was characterized by short-lived and occasionally violenteruptions. It began shortly after the initial warping of theearly surfaces.

 

 

The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of roughly 1,000 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1979 in eleven caves in and around the Wadi Qumran (near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea) in the West Bank. The texts are of great religious and historical significance, as they include practically the only known surviving copies of Biblical documents made before 100 AD, and preserve evidence of considerable diversity of belief and practice within late Second Temple Judaism.

They are written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, mostly on parchment, but with some written on papyrus. ^[1] Publication of the scrolls has taken many decades, and the delay has been a source of academic controversy. As of 2007 two volumes remain to be completed, with the whole series, Discoveries in the Judean Desert, running to thirty nine volumes in total. Many of the scrolls are now housed in the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem.

The scrolls were found in 11 caves, ranging in distance of 125m (Cave 4) to about 1000m (Cave 1) from the settlement at Qumran, located 1km off the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. None of them were found at the actual settlement. It is generally accepted that a Bedouin goat- or sheep-herder by the name of Muhammed edh-Dhib made the first discovery toward the beginning of 1947.
 

In the most commonly told story the shepherd threw a rock into a cave in an attempt to drive out a missing animal under his care. The shattering sound of pottery drew him into the cave, where he found several ancient jars containing scrolls wrapped in linen. Another theory was that two young boys were looking for a lost goat and came upon some of them.
 

Dr. John C. Trever carried out a number of interviews with several men going by the name of Muhammed edh-Dhib, each relating a variation on this tale.
 

The scrolls were first brought to a Bethlehem antiquities dealer named Ibrahim `Ijha, who returned them after being warned that they may have been stolen from a synagogue. The scrolls then fell into the hands of Khalil Eskander Shahin, "Kando", a cobbler and antiques dealer. By most accounts the Bedouin removed only three scrolls following their initial find, later revisiting the site to gather more, possibly encouraged by Kando. Alternatively, it is postulated that Kando engaged in his own illegal excavation: Kando himself possessed at least four scrolls.
 

Arrangements with the Bedouins left the scrolls in the hands of a third party until a sale of them could be negotiated. That third party, George Isha`ya, was a member of the Syrian Orthodox Church, who soon contacted St. Mark`s Monastery in the hope of getting an appraisal of the nature of the texts. News of the find then reached Metropolitan Athanasius Yeshue Samuel, more often referred to as Mar Samuel.

 

After examining the scrolls and suspecting their age, Mar Samuel expressed an interest in purchasing them. Four scrolls found their way into his hands: the now famous Isaiah Scroll (1QIs^a), the Community Rule, the Habakkuk Peshar (Commentary), and the Genesis Apocryphon. More scrolls soon surfaced in the antiquities market, and Professor Eleazer Sukenik, an Israeli archaeologist and scholar at Hebrew University, found himself in possession of three: The War Scroll, Thanksgiving Hymns, and another more fragmented Isaiah scroll.

 

By the end of 1947, Sukenik received word of the scrolls in Mar Samuel`s possession and attempted to purchase them. No deal was reached, and instead the scrolls found the attention of Dr. John C. Trever, of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR). Dr. Trever compared the script in the scrolls to the Nash Papyrus, the oldest biblical manuscript at the time, finding similarities between the two.
 

Dr. Trever, a keen amateur photographer, met with Mar Samuel on February 21, 1948, when he photographed the scrolls. The quality of his photographs often exceeded that of the scrolls themselves over the years, as the texts quickly eroded once removed from their linen wraps.

In March of that year, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War prompted the removal of the scrolls from the country for safekeeping. The scrolls were removed to Beirut.
 

In early September 1948, Mar Samuel brought Professor Ovid R. Sellers, the new Director of ASOR, some additional scroll fragments that he had acquired. By the end of 1948, nearly two years after the discovery of the scrolls, scholars had yet to locate the cave where the fragments had been found. With the unrest in the country, no large scale search could be undertaken. Sellers attempted to get the Syrians to help locate the cave, but they demanded more money than Sellers could offer. Cave 1 was finally discovered on January 28, 1949 by a United Nations observer.
 

After some time, the Dead Sea Scrolls went up for sale in a June 1, 1954 advertisement in the Wall Street Journal.