FAI.K:TilEDEADSEASCROI.I$ANDQUMHA'1 173stonesdonotlie.However,stonesbythemselvesarealsosilent,andany
descriptionisinherentlyinterpretive.Thelanguageadoptedinarchaeolog-
ical reponshas a great dealtodowiththe imageronned inthemind.
Nowhere hasthiscomemore intoplayinQumranresearch than with
regard 10 thecemctery,DeVauxdistinguishedbetween"themainceme-
tery,"which W~IScarerullyorderedin rowswitha consistentrormand
containedonlym~lles,and"extensions" totheeastand~secondaryceme-
teries" tothenorthandsouththalwerelessregularandcontainedsome
skeletonsorwomenandchildren.2HDeVauxacknowledgedoneskeleton
inthe"main"cemeterythatwascertainly remale,but hedescribed this
burialas "abnormalintypeandsituatedapartrromtherowS."29AsJoan
Taylorandothershavepoinledout,deVaux'slanguageindescribingthe
cemeteryerrectivelymargin<llizedthegravescontainingwomenandchil-
dren.^30 ThisvalUinglanguagewithregard tothegraves-distinguishing
membershiporstatus-hassoinfluencedtheresultinginugeortheceme-
terythatitisnotuncommontofindsummariesbyotherscholarsgivingthe
impressionthattheabsenceorwomenandchildrenatQumranishardevi-
dencerromthematerialrem~lins,
EvenonthebasisorevidencerromtheHrstexcavationsthislanguage
was ~lrglwbly misleading. Aerial phoLOgraphs show that lhecemetery
merelyrollowstheirregularcontoursorthegroundtotheeastortheset-
tlement: ,hereisonebrgc cemeteryth:n extendsontothree projecting
plateausandonehillocktothecast, andclosebyisasmallcemetery 10
thesouthanda furtheronctothenorth)lNothinginthelarge-scalelayout
clearlyindicatesanintenttodemarcatesepar,Jteburialareas,andineach
are,lthereisbothcomistcncyandvariationinburialrorm,includingoricn-
tation.Thus,apartrrotnthediscoveryorremaleskeletonsandthetheory
orcelibateEssenes,isthereanymaterialbasisrordistinguishinga"main"
cemeteryfrom"extensions"and"secondary"cemeterics?Wemaynotcthat
the];mguagcordirrercntiationdocsnOIseemtohavearisenuntilanerthe
discoveryorremaleskeletons.
Inthelastrewyears,thecemeteryhasbecometherocusorconsider-
able reevaluation: thesite hasbeen newlysurveyed,andmanyorthe
skeletonscxcavatedbydeVauxhavecometolightandbeensubmitted(Q
newanalysis}2Thusrarthereis stillconsiderabledebateoverwhatmayor
2flV;IUX,Arc})a('o{oRY(/luiliNDead¥'{/SCrulls.4S-iH,57-5H.12&-29.
29 thid.,47.
j(lTaylor,·Cemclcric~ofKhirbcIQlImr.ul:28H-9'9.
jlH;lChcJ1l;lChlili,"lI11ri;11Pr;Klicc~;uQunmlll,-H£'1Q 16 (]9'9j):247-64:Hlll11benemu
Chambon,FUIIif{esfieKIJirlx>1QlIlJlrtlli.plalC~8,442-4·..448.
32 OlavIWhrcr-Enl.FerdinandRohrhirsdl,:mdDiclbenIbhn,"UberdieGdhcrfddcr
von KhirbctQummrl.irl~I~M>I1dcrcdieFundedcrCampaj.ll1c 1956.1: Al1lhropoloj.lhch