Were Temple Offerings Buried at Qumran?

We typically think of cemeteries as places where people bury deceased family members and loved ones. But in the first century BCE, the inhabitants of Qumran, the famous site associated with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, also buried something else in their cemetery: sealed pottery jars. At least two graves at Qumran contained storage jars once filled with date honey but no human remains! What is behind this strange custom, which is unique to Qumran?1 The Qumran cemetery is located about 150 feet to the east of the main settlement […]