Chapter2 THE MY5TE~Y OF CAVE 1 ,1949-1950 y the beginning of 1949 all the major scrolls had been bought or taken out of the country. Israel's War of Independence had come to a halt with an un­ easy cease-fire on 7 January, and when the dust settled, Transjordan, later known as the Hashemite There is no doubt Kingdom ofJordan, had control ofQ!Imran, EastJe­ the discovery is one rusalem, The Old City, and Mt. Scopus, including the campus of the Hebrew University. of the most impor­ From 1949 onward, the center of scrolls acquisi­ tant ever made in tion became the Palestine Archaeological Museum, Palestine and the central players, Gerald Lankester Harding, Father Roland de Vaux, and Yusef Saad. The ground­ -Gerald Lankester Harding work was laid for a more scientific analysis of the Qumran caves, the site of Qumran itsel£ and arti- facts connected with the scrolls. Perhaps most important of all, Harding and de Vaux squarely faced the reality of illegal excavation, and made a momentous, fortuitous decision about ho}V to handle the Bedouin and their booty. January 1949 By January 1949 none of the officials of the Palestine Archaeological Museum or the Department of Antiquities yet knew the location of Cave 1. This was the obvious starting point if any control at all were to be brought to Bedouin treasure hunting. Just after the first of the year O. R. Sellers, director of the American Schools of Ori­ ental Research in Jerusalem (1948-1949) and YusefSaad/ secretary of the Palestine Archaeological Museum, attempted to locate the "Scroll Cave" (Cave 1), but George Isha'ya demanded payment, and negotiations ceased. 24-28 January 1949 On 24 January 1949 Captain Philippe Lippens, Belgian observer on the United Nations staff, asked for help from Major-General Lash of the Arab Legion to relocate the cave. This was accomplished on 28 January 1949 by Captain Akkash el Zebn after a.three-day search.2 THE DEAD SEA sc~oLLS !I1 A Full History, Volume One, 1947-1960 29 January-4 February 1949 Meanwhile, on 29 January 1949, the day after Cave 1 had been rediscovered, the Syrian Archbishop (Metropolitan) Mar Samuel had arrived in the United States with four scrolls and various fragments. 3 Six days later, 4 Febru­ ary, Trever met him in New Jersey to begin arrangements for unrolling the "Fourth Scroll" from Cave 1, the Genesis Apocryphon (Lamech Scroll or Lamech Apocalypse), on which see more below.4 While they were talking, Samuel handed him a metal cigarette box,s containing scroll fragments placed be­ tween layers of cotton. Samuel explained that George Isha'ya had obtained these mate­ rials during a recent excavation of the cave (sometime in 1948 or even 1947?).6 Trever Father Roland de Vaux, O.P. Courtesy the Ecole worked on these frag­ biblique et archeologique frans:aise Jerusalem. ments during the sec- ond week ofApril. 15 February-5 March 1949 It took Harding and de Vaux just two weeks to organize the of­ ficial excavation of Cave 1. Under their direction, but in a joint effort of the Ecole, ASOR, and the museum, the dig lasted three weeks until 5 March. Arguably the two most important players in the first decade of scroll discovery and research, Harding and de Vaux each had been well prepared by training as well as experience to fill the roles shortly to be thrust upon them. Born 17 December 1903 in Paris, Roland de Vaux was reared in a profoundly Catholic family, received his education at the College Stanislas and the Seminary of St. Sulpice, and acquired a Licence es­ Lettres from the Sorbonne. He was ordained a priest before entering the Dominican Order on 23 September 1930. Sent to the Ecole bib- 92 .