{"title":"The Provenance of the “Seiyal Collection”: History and Implications","authors":"Michael Press","doi":"10.1163/15685179-bja10049","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article considers the collection history of the so-called “Seiyal Collection,” purchased by the Palestine Archaeological Museum in 1952 and 1953. While the Taʿamireh Bedouin and/or Khalil Iskander Shahin reported the material as coming from Wadi Seiyal, much if not all of the material was actually looted from caves in Nahal Hever. The common claim that the Bedouin misreported the findspot to hide the fact that they had smuggled the material from Israel into then-Jordanian-held East Jerusalem cannot be correct, as the caves along both Wadi Seiyal and Nahal Hever are on the Israeli side of the Green Line. The article considers why the provenance was misreported, whether the scrolls team knew that the material had been smuggled from Israel, and the implications of these issues both for our understanding of the scrolls and for scholarly ethics.</p>","PeriodicalId":42669,"journal":{"name":"Dead Sea Discoveries","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Dead Sea Discoveries","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685179-bja10049","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"RELIGION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article considers the collection history of the so-called “Seiyal Collection,” purchased by the Palestine Archaeological Museum in 1952 and 1953. While the Taʿamireh Bedouin and/or Khalil Iskander Shahin reported the material as coming from Wadi Seiyal, much if not all of the material was actually looted from caves in Nahal Hever. The common claim that the Bedouin misreported the findspot to hide the fact that they had smuggled the material from Israel into then-Jordanian-held East Jerusalem cannot be correct, as the caves along both Wadi Seiyal and Nahal Hever are on the Israeli side of the Green Line. The article considers why the provenance was misreported, whether the scrolls team knew that the material had been smuggled from Israel, and the implications of these issues both for our understanding of the scrolls and for scholarly ethics.
期刊介绍:
Dead Sea Discoveries is an international journal dedicated to the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and associated literature. The journal is primarily devoted to the discussion of the significance of the finds in the Judean Desert for Biblical Studies, and the study of early Jewish and Christian history. Dead Sea Discoveries has established itself as an invaluable resource for the subject both in the private collections of professors and scholars as well as in the major research libraries of the world. ● Discussions on new discoveries from a wide variety of perspectives. ● Exchange of ideas among scholars from various disciplines. ● Thematic issues dedicated to particular texts or topics.