1 like = 1 coisa aleatória sobre os Manuscritos do Mar Morto ou sobre a vida acadêmica.
Let's go. I'll try, but I don't promise to do thousands.
1 like = 1 random fact about the Dead Sea Scrolls or academic life.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a group of religious texts found in the Dead Sea region (I know, creative name, right).
To make life easier, usually we abbreviate Dead Sea Scrolls by DSS.
Researchers are not certain about a lot of things on the DSS.
By the way, this thing about not being sure of things is quite common when you research ancient history.
That's because in history, different from science made in a lab, we cannot try and test our theories.
Back to the DSS, we can say that it's discovery was one of the biggest in the last century.
We call it manuscripts because they are handwritten texts. Yep, I told you the name was not really super creative.
Those texts were written in papyrus and parchment. And its possible to know each material just by looking into a photo.
About the languages, there are texts in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and in some encrypted language.
I know people who knows how to read all those languages fluently. I know some. I think it's beautiful.
Talking about beautiful things, I found the Scrolls beautiful. There are some with great calligraphy, I get all enchanted by it.
Currently high definition images of the DSS are available online. Any person can go there and have a look.
deadseascrolls.org.il/home
The DSS were really damaged by the action of time. Like, very damaged, at the level of many being only legible in other lights, like ultraviolet.
The first DSS were found in the region of Qumran, but other texts found in caves around the dead Sea are also classified as such.
We say manuscript and it sounds super glamorous, but the majority is just a small fragment.
Talking about fragments, there were around 15.000 found in Qumran. And they are part of more than 900 texts.
Before my PhD I haven't worked much with the DSS and I use to think they were this otherworldly thing.
When I got the opportunity to work with the DSS I almost said no because I thought I was not good enough for it.
I'm glad that in that moment I was told that the best way to learn about something is by studying. I agreed and learned much on the DSS
The vast majority of the DSS are religious texts, including texts that are part of what we call the Bible.
The DSS were found in caves, so, someone put them in there and did it with some intention. We just ate not sure who and why.
There are many theories about why the DSS were there. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow when I will put more stuff on this list.
It's possible the DSS were stored at the caves around the time of the 1 Jewish Revolt (around 70 CE), as a way to keep them from the Romans
That's because the latest manuscripts found in Qumran can be dated from around 70 CE.
Still on this hypothesis, many researchers believe that the Scrolls from Qumran were the Temples Library (or part of it), from Jerusalem.
Another possibility is that it was a library for all the region, like a huge knowledge depository.
Or maybe it was the library of a specific group of people that lived nearby.
It could be a genizah.
Genizah is the place were Jewish books and religious documents which are worn-out are stored before they can received proper ritual burial
By the way, there is a collection of medieval documents, with texts referring to a 1000 years of history, that was found in a Genizah on Cairo
The group of texts that were found in a Genizah in Cairo is called "Cairo Genizah texts"
For quite a long time the predominant view on the DSS was that it was a library of a Jewish religious sect.
Also, for a long time, one of the main academic views was that the Essene were this sect.
It´s possible that around 2.000 years ago there was a Jewish sect known as Essene. We have little concrete info about them.
Maybe because we don't actually know much about them, the Essenes are used for all type of cure-helathy-new-age-change-your-life-thing. 😒
I already saw "Essene bread", "Essene prayers", "Essene meditation"... Recently I saw an ESSENE QUANTUM PRAYER.
It's really frustrating to see those bizarre appropriation of names from antiquity.
It´s possible that the Essene were a literary creation and that they have never existed.
In the same way it´s possible that the Essenes existed. The fact is that we will never know for sure. And it´s OK.
Many times when studying ancient history the most important thing is not the knowledge if something really existed. Don´t worry, I´ll explain.
To understand a society is many times more interesting to know what they believed than to know if that thing they believed actually exist
In the example of the Essenes, it´s important and interesting to study if they existed, and those researches are valid and fundamental.
But even if we don´t know if they existed, the narrative of their existence tell us a lot about the society that wrote about them.
It´s similar with demons. Their existence is irrelevant to my research, what I study is how they were perceived.
By the way, I think the question I receive most from people that are not from my research area is "do you believe in demons?"
I am always explaining that my personal belief is irrelevant to my ability to do research.
In the other hand the way I see the world/my beliefs do modify the way I work.
To believe or not is irrelevant since both influence the research, and there is not one that is best, both views are important.
To be impartial is an illusion.