Writings, Ruins, and Their Reading: The Dead Sea Discoveries as a Case Study in Theory Formation and Scientific Interpretation

This article takes up a case study from the field of research, known as Qumran studies, that has arisen as a result of the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls. It brings together the study of ancient texts on one hand, and archaeological research on the other. Qumran-Essene hypothesis asserts that the scrolls found in the caves belonged to the sect of the Essenes whose center, was at the nearby site of Qumran. An interplay between the textual and archaeological interpretation of the scrolls forms a hermeneutic circle where texts are used to interpret and in turn are interpreted by materials found. It was learned that in the spring of 1947, some Bedouin shepherds made the first discovery of scrolls in a cave in the Judaean desert, by the site of Qumran, at the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea.