10. The Dead Sea Scrolls

Abstract

Scrolls scholars have been applying many ‘new’ aspects into their work routine, but a fulllength book depicting the entire protocol or procedure is still lacking. This book is an attempt to help fill this gap, with emphasis on digital innovations for textual manipulation and enhancement. The Introduction lists some of these innovations but spends a good deal of energy on describing the ‘Stegemann method’ of reconstruction (though, as is noted, he did not in fact invent it). This detailed description is important because it is basically the Stegemann method that is being applied in this book. Part 1 (Methodology) has chapters on collecting materials, image manipulation, finding material on the verso, finding wads, textual reconstruction, fonts, damage patterns, and placing fragments on a canvass using the Stegemann method. There are also appendices on fonts and on margins of error. Part 2 (4Q418a [4QInstructione]) uses this particular text as an illustration of using the protocol on a manuscript for reconstruction of the text. This is a very enlightening volume, for which we can all be grateful, but I am slightly surprised that there is no mention of W.H. Brownlee, whose pioneering work on textual reconstruction was praised in the 1970s. leSTer l. GraBBe