THE CEMETERIES OF QUMRAN AND CELIBACY: CONFUSION LAID TO REST?

While nearly all serious scholarship on the Dead Sea Scrolls has focused on the texts themselves, there has been an ongoing and unresolved argument over the nature of the site itself since its excavation in the 1950s, with many conflicting theories. As with many other archaeological controversies in the Holy Land, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls have engendered debate and dissension among scholars,' destroyed careers and brought lawsuits between individuals as well. For decades, much of this debate has centered around whether or not Qumran is the Essene settlement site referred to by Pliny the Elder and Dio Chrysostom,2 and the relationship of the 850O documents found