!מתקני המים המדורגים בקומראן הם, בכל זאת, מקוואות טהרה

The identification of the stepped and plastered water installations unearthed at Qumran has recently been challenged by Y. Magen and Y. Peleg, who identified them as part of a potter’s workshop. According to this suggestion, the function of these installations was to catch the suspended clay in the water which ran as a desert flood through Wadi Qumran and was captured by means of an aqueduct and led into the site. The article deals with several topics related to these installations and the water gathered in them. Relying on geomorphological studies which have gauged the suspended sediment in the neighbouring wadis, the six large water installations of Qumran (Nos. 49, 56, 71, 117, 118 and 138) could gather, on average, c. 450–500 liters of wet clay (equal to some 900 kg) per annum. This amount is insufficient to operate a potter’s workshop
on an industrial basis. Other topics discussed are the exceedingly large size of the Qumran installations, as well their abundance in Qumran, against similar installations in other sites, and particularly in Jerusalem. Both features seem to be the outcome of the fact that these installations are located in the desert, where regular water supply is neither guaranteed nor self evident.