Women at Qumrân? Between texts and objects

Abstract

Scholarship long assumed that only men inhabited the architectural site of Qumran and thus failed to query the sex of the residents. Similarly specialists of the Dead Sea scrolls focused on these texts without linking them to the material evidence of the archeological site. This article explores the reasons why scholars assumed the absence of women at Qumran. It uses the material evidence from archeological digs to argue the contrary.