Our greatest prize was, of course, the collection of parch- 

 ment scrolls that we unearthed, biblical and others. This 

 was the first time such scrolls have been discovered outside 

 caves and in proper stratigraphic contexts, which permits 

 dating them to before the destruction of the Temple in 

 70 c.E. They include chapters from Genesis, Leviticus, 

 Deuteronomy, Pslams and Ezekial, and are identical in text, 

 spelling and chapter division with the traditional Hebrew 

 Bible. We also found a scroll fragment of the long lost orig- 

 inal Hebrew manuscript of the Book of Jubilees, one of the 

 most important apocryphal works, which is reserved only 

 in Ethiopic, Greek and Latin manuscripts, but which was 

 suspected to have been originally written in Hebrew. It 

 was very popular with the Dead Sea Scroll Sect. Another 

 important find, also in the Apocrypha, was a first century 

 B.c.E. copy of the lost 200 b.c.e. Hebrew original of Eccle- 

 siasticus, also known as the Wisdom of Ben Sira. Most 

 astonishing perhaps of our finds was a portion of a scroll, 

 identical with one of the Dead Sea Scroll fragments discov- 

 ered in Qumran Cave IV, consisting of liturgies associated 

 with the Heavenly Sabbath sacrifices. Since the Masada 

 Dead Sea Scroll portion can be clearly and definitely dated 

 for the first time as not later than the first half of the first 

 century c.e., it conclusively disproves the views of a very 



small minority of scholars who hold that the Dead Sea 

 Scrolls are either not genuine or date only from medieval 

 times. 



I should add that in addition to scrolls, we also found 

 no less than 700 ostraca (fragments of pottery bearing in- 

 scriptions) which will be the object of fruitful future study. 

 Among these the most important group, and certainly the 

 most intriguing, consists of eleven small potsherds, each with 

 a different name or nickname, and all written by the same 

 hand. The most startling is the sherd bearing the name of 

 Ben Yair, who may well be the very Zealot commander 

 mentioned by Josephus. Could this group of ostraca refer 

 to the ten or so last surviving men who drew lots among 

 themselves to determine who would remain to kill the others? 

 This is a tempting interpretation. 



Our excavations are over. We archaeologists now face 

 the less romantic and more arduous scientific task of exam- 

 ining, studying, and assessing the tensof thousands of sherds, 

 deciphering the inscriptions, elucidating the scrolls, com- 

 pleting our stratigraphic plans, and evaluating all our data 

 both from the archaeological and historical viewpoints. 

 When this material is classified and published, it will, I hope, 

 help to present the scientific and spiritual reconstruction of 

 the Masada that was. 



MASADA LECTURE SERIES 



"The Historical Context of Masada," by Prof. William F. 

 Albright, W. W. Spence Professor Emeritus of Semitic Lan- 

 guages at Johns Hopkins University, will open a series of 

 four lectures related to the special exhibition on May 14. 



Other lectures in the series will include "The Dead Sea 

 Scrolls and Early Sectarianism," by Prof. Norman Golb, 

 University of Chicago, May 28; "Josephus and Masada," 

 by Prof. Morton Smith, Columbia University, June 4; and 

 "Israel, Crossroads of Empires and Civilizations: Archaeo- 

 logical Evidence," by Prof. Helene Kantor, University of 

 Chicago, June 11. 



Prof. Albright, the first 

 lecturer, is an outstand- 

 ing authority on the ar- 

 chaeology of the Near East 

 and is a past president of 

 the International Associ- 

 ation of Old Testament 

 Scholars. 



He earned his doctor- 

 ate in Semitic languages 

 from Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity in 1916 and from 

 1919 to 1936 was on the 

 staff of the American School 

 of Oriental Research in 



Professor Albright 



Jerusalem, twice serving as its director. 



Prof. Albright holds 27 honorary doctorates from insti- 

 tutions in sev'cral countries and is a fellow or honorary mem- 

 ber of many learned societies. 



.'\mong his many books arc several of general interest, 

 including From the Stone Age to Christianity, Archaeology and 

 the Religion oj Israel, The Archaeology oj Palestine, History, Ar- 

 chaeology and Christian Humanism, and Tahweh and the Gods oj 

 Canaan. With David Noel Freedman, he edits the Double- 

 day Anchor Bible. 



Prof. Morton Smith, Professor of Ancient History at Co- 

 lumbia University, earned his doctorate in theology at the 

 Harvard Divinity School. His thesis, "Judaism in Pales- 

 tine I, to the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes," was recast 

 as a series of lectures on the History of Religions of the 

 American Council of Learned Societies. He is co-author 

 of The Ancient Greeks and Heroes and Gods (with Moses Hadas) . 



Prof. Norman Golb and Prof. Helene Kantor are both 

 on the faculty of the Oriental Institute and the Department 

 of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago. 



Prof. Golb, Associate Professor of Medieval Jewish Stud- 

 ies, made several discoveries and identifications of Jewish 

 documents while secretary of the Institute of Jewish Studies 

 of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. 



Prof. Kantor, Professor of Archaeology, is a specialist in 

 comparative archaeology and art of the ancient Near East 

 and formative stages of its civilizations. With P. P. De- 

 lougaz, she directed excavations at the large prehistoric 

 settlements and protohistoric urban centers of Beth Yerah 

 (Sea of Galilee) and Chogha Mish (Khuzestan, Iran). 



The lecture series tickets are S5.00 for Museum Mem- 

 bers and $7.50 for non-members. Lectures will be held on 

 consecutive Tuesdays at 8:15 p.m. in the James Simpson 

 Theatre. The "Masada" exhibit will be open on the eve- 

 nings when lectures are held. 



MAT Page 7 



