Prof. Kraft wrote that "infra" meant "downhill" here. That, I think, doesn't match the context. Just two brief notes for now. If you were to describe one of the following as notably high, which would you pick: Essene place, Ein Gedi, or Masada? Second, Bob wrote: >Thus I would say that Pliny's account is basically irrelevant for >arguments about Qumran's possible Essene connections. But, even if one were quite agnostic about "infra" in this case, it remains that Pliny's words on Essenes are not limited to "infra"! He describes them in ways that match Kh. Qumran and Qumran mss. And he still also locates them west of the Dead Sea, where Qumran still is. The new Tel Aviv [archaeology journal] is out, (v.27 n.2 [2000] 273-91). Yizhar Hirschfeld's site is plainly not the Essene locus of Pliny's source from Herod the Great's time, as amply demonstrated there by David Amit and Jodi Magness. A Reply from Y.H. is included. Briefly: Essenes are described as a community, not as "hermits" (and "vegetarian" is not from the most ancient descriptions). The site is too late and too small and the wrong type (seasonal work; perhaps agricultural storage). It lacks built courtyard, dining room, meeting room, mikvaot. Or a cemetery. Or even an oil lamp. Merely two coins predate mid first century CE--and they are both surface finds. The site was bigger in Byzantine times. Yizhar Hirschfeld's site--located South-West (!) of Ein Gedi (the spring)--is not Pliny's Essene site. sincerely, Stephen Goranson For private reply, e-mail to Stephen Goranson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: "unsubscribe Orion." Archives are on the Orion Web site, http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il.
