Monday, 12th June 2006 (AGM lecture)
Prof. George Brooke (Manchester University)
THE SITE OF QUMRAN:WHAT IS ALL THE FUSS ABOUT?
In this lecture George Brooke will explore both long-standing and more recent theories about the site of Qumran. The ongoing interest in the archaeology of the Qumran site and the range of opinions about it amongst professionals and amateurs alike is highly distinctive; no other small site from antiquity has received quite such extended and diverse description. Why should this be? What is at stake? Do the famous scrolls from the eleven caves at and near the site hinder or help in providing answers to some of the questions about Qumran? How distinctive is the site? These are some of the questions to be addressed in the lecture which will provide a fresh overview of one of the most famous archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century that still engenders fascination and stimulates the imagination of the twenty-first century onlooker.
George J. Brooke is Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the University of Manchester where he has taught Biblical Studies and Early Judaism since 1984, specialising in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Since 1992 has been a member of the Israel Antiquities Authority's international team of editors of the scrolls. In 1999 he was the President of the British Association for Jewish Studies. He was a founding editor of the journal Dead Sea Discoveries and is an editor of the University of Manchester's Journal of Semitic Studies. Amongst his many publications are several directly connected with Qumran and the scrolls found there.
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