The High Cost of Holiness--Toilets, the Torah, and the Dead Sea Scrolls

I was honored to be part of one of the most fascinating archaeological discoveries at Qumran, the ancient settlement at the NW end of the Dead Sea that is associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls.  I am speaking of the positive scientific identification of an area northwest of the "Camp" of Holiness, where the latrines used by the Community were located.

Back in the 1990s I began to wonder if the observance of the commandment in the Torah  that there be no human waste "inside the Camp," also mentioned by Josephus regarding the Essenes (Jewish War Bk 2), might be verified on the ground archaeologically? And more particularly, since there is another Torah commandment that on the Sabbath one could not go "outside the Camp," the question became--how did the community, dedicated to such strict observance, manage themselves on the Sabbath. Teaming up with Israeli anthropologist Joe Zias, and a team of scientists in France, we made an amazing discovery--not only did we find the latrine area just as described in the Dead Sea Scrolls, but we discovered another surprise--that the very practice of piety might have led to a shortened lifespan by the inhabitants. In their efforts to be "Holy" they evidently payed a price. Our results were published in a peer reviewed academic journal: “Toilets at Qumran, the Essenes, and the Scrolls, New Anthropological Data and Old Theories,” with Joe Zias, Stephanie Harter-Lailheugue, Revue de Qumran 22:4 (2006): 631-640.

This lecture was part a  Biblical Archaeology Society  seminar, publishers of the premiere archaeology magazine, Biblical Archaeology Review. It is used with permission.

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