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Research questions are the building block of our platform of scientific inquiry. Key questions are the ones at the heart of a mystery; every other question helps answer one of them.

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Dead Sea Scrolls: dating, scribes and provenance
Dead Sea Scrolls: dating, scribes and provenance3 key questions · 5 questions · 0 answered
Open the mystery
QuestionWhere it stands
KeyHow many scribes wrote the scrolls, and can individual hands be identified?
Most likelyThe library was written by many scribes, and machine features can distinguish hands even where the script…
KeyIs the traditional palaeographic chronology of the scrolls broadly right, or are many manuscripts substantially older?
Most likelyMany manuscripts are older than the palaeographic chronology says, often by decades and sometimes by a…
Can the Enoch model date undated manuscripts reliably from handwriting alone?
Most likelyEnoch dates manuscripts to within about 30 years, comparable to radiocarbon, and can replace palaeographic…
KeyWhere were the scrolls made, and by whom were they collected?
Most likelyA sectarian community living at Qumran collected and partly copied the library
Are the fragments that surfaced on the antiquities market after 2002 genuine?
Most likelyMost or all post-2002 market fragments are modern forgeries, often on ancient leather