| Did more than one scribe work on a single document, or did different scribes use parchment originating from the same source for different manuscripts? There are examples in which two or more scribes worked on the same manuscript, as was the case with the Temple Scroll, Thanksgiving Scroll, and several other scrolls. If more than one scribe participated in the production of a single scroll, which was then subsequently damaged and is today quite fragmented, the critical analysis based only on paleography could falsely identify separate origins of the text. Because of their size, some of the scrolls (i.e. the Isaiah Scroll, the Manual of Discipline, and the Temple Scroll) are composed of parchments produced from a number of different animals. The Temple Scroll is written on nineteen separate sheets of parchment, each one thirty-seven to sixty-one centimeters in length.20 It is probable that no more than two or four sheets were derived from the same animal. Analysis of fragments from each section of these scrolls will allow us to determine the degree of relatedness of the parchments in a single scroll and whether they are derived from identical or closely related animals. This analysis could also be applied to repair patches that would give us information about where a scroll was when it was patched. Is the parchment for the patch from the same herd as the original manuscript? Does the patch represent a herd from a different region, reflecting mobility of either the original scroll or the herd? Perhaps parchment was a trade item that was brought from one or a number of different sources. The resulting data, revealing the level of relatedness of the parchment from a single scroll, will establish benchmarks valuable for the subsequent interpretation of the genetic data obtained by analysis of the aDNA from the fragments.
Does the collection represent a library from a single locality, or is it a collection representing contributions from a wide region? Comparing DNA fingerprints recovered from the parchments and those obtained from archaeological remains of animals found in ancient sites throughout Israel can determine the origins of the parchment. In the ancient populations of domestic animals in Israel certain alleles (forms of a gene) likely became fixed by inbreeding in local herds. This is especially true if a group such as that at Qumran was isolated and closed. 21 Biblical examples of the importance of separating flocks and herds are reflected in Genesis 13:5–9, when Abram and Lot separate their herds to different locales, and again in Genesis 30:40, when Jacob separates his herds from those belonging to Laban.It was apparently critical that animals for the production of skins to be used in Jerusalem, the temple city, were derived from flocks and animals that were "known to their ancestors." 22 This suggests that flocks and herds were carefully observed and may have been guarded against "contaminating" crossbreeding. Such patterns of husbandry would effectively produce closed breeding groups with predictable genetic consequences. Fixed allele patterns would establish specific markers in the population that could be used to identify and differentiate local herds. Analysis of aDNA extracted from goat bones excavated at Qumran and other archaeological sites within present-day Israel could reveal any fixed allele patterns and will be compared to the alleles found in the parchments. An aDNA analysis will determine if the sampled parchments were produced locally at Qumran or collected from different locations. A test of the sensitivity of this procedure could be performed comparing genetic fingerprints from scrolls that were likely composed at Qumran, such as the Rule of the Community (1QS), and others that were possibly brought to Qumran from another location in Palestine, such as the Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa).23 Another potential source of information about the origin of manuscripts is a comparison of DNA sequence with "autograph" documents, several of which may now have been identified in the Qumran collections.24 These autographs may be considered to have been authored by the people at Qumran and would provide a genetic fingerprint of the parchment used by these individuals.The molecular identification of parchment fragments involved a number of complex steps. We first demonstrated the ability to isolate and amplify aDNA from parchment on "modern parchment," animal skins that have been treated in a similar way to that which we believe was practiced anciently. To extract the DNA, the skin fragments were pulverized in liquid nitrogen, dissolved and lysed in a highly chaotropic solution and the DNA recovered by collection on silica beads. We have extracted DNA from museum skins of rabbits and commercially prepared deer and sheep skins. These fragments were sequenced and shown to be specific for rabbit, deer, and sheep, respectively, and these procedures were then used to obtain aDNA from the ancient parchment. After we demonstrated that it was actually possible to obtain DNA from treated skins, the next step was to identify in modern goats—both domestic and wild—and other potential parchment sources the appropriate DNA sequence changes, or polymorphisms, capable of differentiating individual, herd, or species. DNA was isolated from modern domestic goats, wild goats, sheep, ibex, and other animals possibly used for parchment production and then amplified using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). From our preliminary results it is clear that unique DNA regions will be identified that will give good differentiation at the species and herd level.
Introduction | Section 1 | Section 2 | Results and Notes |