Toilets at Qumran, the Essenes, and the Scrolls: New Anthropological Data and Old Theories

Discovered in and around Qumran, the Dead Sea Scrolls have not only shed light on early Judaism and Christian Origins but have also provided vital insight into the lifestyle of the sect responsible for the writings, including an intriguing portrait of its unique toilet practices. While many religious groups in antiquity were concerned with what enters the body, the Qumran sect, known for its strict observance of ritual purity, was especially concerned with what eventually exits. Recent parasitological evidence of these toilet practices at Qumran, as it turns out, supplies an exceptional anthropological indicator for correlating this Jewish sect with the group referred to by Josephus as the Essenes. This important new evidence bolsters the Essene hypothesis by corroborating the descriptions of this distinctive toilet regimen in both the Scrolls and Josephus.