dead sea scrolls online

8/6/2019 Dead Sea Scrolls Online

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THEDEADSEASCROLLSONLINE

TAKINGONA[SECOND]LIFEOFTHEIROWN

Dr.SusanHazan

TheNewMediaUnit,TheIsraelMuseum,Jerusalem

Introduction

The Israel Museums 2008 conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls and ContemporaryCultureservedtoupdatethescholarlycommunityonthemostrecentdevelopmentsin

Scrolls research, underlining the reconceptualization and recontextualization of the

scrolls inacontemporaryworld.Thispaper focuseson thescrollsandtheirelectronic

message,andthedifferentwaysinwhichtheirsignificancecannowbecommunicated

toschoolchildren,universitystudents,andthepublicinmeaningfulways.Thisisatime

whenpeoplenolongerdwellonancientmanuscripts,butgrazeinsteadonsoundbytes

andfleetingvisualsinanerathatisnowreferredtoasaninformationage.Howcanthe

scrollsmessagetraveltheseelectronicbyways,andhowreadilycantheirmessagebe

heard amongst all the white noise of information that is generated by the Internet,

mobile telephony and other electronic media? At the New Media Unit at the Israel

Museum,we see itasour remit to findmeaningfulways todisseminate the religious

andculturalmessageoftheQumrancommunityoftheSecondTempleperiod,andto

extend thewrittenwordof the2,000 yearoldmanuscripts to thepublicbeyond the

glassshowcase,andthemuseumwalls.

The international scholarlycommunitywhohavemade theDeadSeaScrolls their life

workhavededicatedthemselvestothishighlyspecialisedfield;endeavouringtocreate

asharedvocabulary inordertodefine theirownparameters foracademicdiscussion.

Thesediscussionscontinuetoevolvearoundthescrolls,theirgraphicquality,thescribal

features,andtheirhistoricalmessage,butthelinguafrancasoartfullyarticulatedattheconference was not actually expressed in a language easily shared by outsiders.

Referringtospecifictextsbytheiridentificationnumberscurtly,as11QPsa,4Q179,CD,

1Q5961, 2Q18 and the like, this was a language that was not truly transparent to

outsiders. While the dynamic group of scholars was freely able to engage in intense

discussion with one anothera discussion anchored in cryptic endnotes and savant

referencesthiswasnotaconversationthatmademuchsensetothoseoutsideofthe

guild.

At the same time the knowledge inscribed in the scrolls is highly attractive to those

outsideof the cabal,and it is critical tomake thisknowledgeavailable to thepublic,

withoutdumbingdownthecontent.PeoplemaywellhaveheardabouttheScrolls

perhaps fromaDanBrownnovel,or inabrief,popularencounterwith theScrollson

cable TVbut once they have looked up the Dead Sea Scrolls on Google, or on

Wikipedia, it is critical that they find theirway to information froma competentand

trustworthy source; such as the Israel Museum. In this case, the very notion of a

museuminspiresasenseoftrust,andthefactthatthisknowledgeislocatedunderthe

umbrella of the museum assures the visitor/user that the information is, in fact,

accurate,uptodate,andreliable.Atthesametimethemuseumisobligedtomakeits

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collectionsnotonlyavailabletoitspublic,butalsointellectuallyaccessible.Thismeans

that resources must be presented with the right level of interpretation; so that the

laymancanmakesenseofthematerialinawaythatispertinenttohimorher.

Towards this goal we use the tools available to us in an information age; our

institutionalwebsite,web2.0tools,webcastingandwearenowmovingintonewvirtual

worlds.Inordertorelaythesignificantprimarysourcesandthesecondaryinformationthat serves to contextualize and interpret the scrolls, we have to rearticulate the

content that is to be uploaded online or inworld in meaningful ways. When our

[physical] visitors come into The Dorot Foundation Dead Sea Scrolls Information and

StudyCenter inmemoryof JoyGottesmanUngeleider theywilldiscoveranumberof

differentplatforms:films,documentaries,databases,animationsand installations.Our

goal isnotonlytobeabletopresenttherichnessofcontent innewways,butalsoto

inspireourpublicandtofindnewcompellingwaystopresenttherelevanceoftheDead

SeaScrollstotheminanAgeofInformation.

ThispapermarkssomeoftheScrollsdigitalfootprints,andinvitesyoutogobehindthe

scenesoftheNewMediaUnittoseethekindsofsolutionswehavedeveloped inthe

museum.We find thatweareona constantly changing rollercoaster learning curve,

because in contrast to Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship, a field that moves forward with

greatcaution,thefieldofnewmediaflashesbyatthecrackofasoundbyteandevolves

ataspeedthatnotonlydemands innovativeresponses,butalso leavesussometimes

quitebreathless.

TheDeadSeaScrollsdigitalfootprints

Sincetheirdiscoveryin1947,theDeadSeaScrollshavestimulatedmuchpublicinterest

all over the world. The worldwide distribution of digital images, scholarly research,

translations and transliterations has now become available not only through the

thousandsofbooksandprintpublications,onmicrofiche,aswellasonCDROMs,on

line,andacrossdigitalnetworks;andnowover3Dplatforms.Thetaleoftheirdiscovery

hasfiredtheimaginationofscholarandlaymanalike.Whilethediscoveryignitedpublic

imagination,itwasalsoshroudedinanauraofmystery.Therecognitionthatthescrolls

reflected a time during the Second Temple period, the time when Jesus of Nazareth

lived,notonlygeneratedcriticalscholarlyresearchbutalso intrigues the laymanwho

now,perhapsforthefirsttime,isabletoseekinformationfromprimaryresourcesover

theInternetinwaysthatwereunthinkableevenfiveyearsago.

Sincetheirinitialdiscovery,theScrollsandtheidentityofthecommunitythatguarded

themhasgeneratedmuchscholarlyandpublicinterest.TheScrollsandscrollfragments

discoverednear theDeadSearepresentacapaciouscorpusofancient textsemerging

fragmentby fragment fromaprototypearchiveandperhaps thegreatestmanuscript

findofthetwentiethcentury.TheDeadSeaScrollsdiscoveryreflectsanimpressivelink

to the past. The thousands of fragments, manuscripts and scrolls represent a rich

literarycollectionreproducedbyhandinanumberofcopies,writteninthreedifferent

languages:Hebrew,Aramaic,andGreek.

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The linkfromthepasttothepresentstillrunsstrongviathenumerouswebsitesthat

continuetorefertotheScrolls.AGooglesearchforDeadSeaScrollswillreturnover

onemillionresults;reflectingtheunwavering interest intheScrollsandtheirenduring

mystique. With the early CDROMs and databases that emerged from the Dead Sea

Scrollresearch,cametherealizationthatthedistributionofthehistorical,culturaland

religiousmessagecontainedwithinmanuscriptscouldbedisseminatedmoreefficiently

via electronic publications. This, in turn, both stimulated popular interest in themanuscripts,and functionedasamoreefficient tool for sharing scholarly research in

researchcentersallovertheworld.ThefirstCDRomdeveloped,TheDeadSeaScrolls

Revealed, was produced in 1994, by Pixel Multimedia, Tel Aviv, and Aaron Witkin

Associates,London.1

Figure1:TheDeadSeaScrollsRevealedPixelMultimedia,

TelAvivandAaronWitkinAssociates,London,1994

This was perhaps the first electronic tool that brought the secrets of the mysterious

manuscriptsontothecomputerscreen.Thepopularmultimedia interfacepresentsthe

critical historical texts and sources from the Second Temple Period, and a

comprehensive section on the excavations at Khirbet Qumran. This is illustrated by

photorealisticwalkthroughs,and flyovers,across theancient settlementas itmight

haveappearedtwothousandyearsago;asectiononScrollsresearch,withdetailsabout

howthescrollswerewrittenandthe laboriousprocessesofdecipheringandanalyzing

thetexts;andextensivebackgroundmaterialonthedebatesthataroseduringthemanyexcavations of the Essene Compound. The intuitive navigation tool guided the user

throughthetexts,images,CADsimulations,andvideoclipsandprovidedastimulating,

andinformedintroductiontotheDeadSeaScrolls.

1 The Dead Sea Scrolls Revealed. Produced by Pixel Multimedia, Tel Aviv, and Aaron Witkin Associates,

London, 1994.

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TheJerusalembased,academicinstitution,TheOrionCenterfortheStudyoftheDead

SeaScrollswasestablished in 1995as part of the Institute for Jewish Studiesat the

HebrewUniversityofJerusalem.Theirscholarlywebsite(orion.mscc.huji.ac.il)provides

manyresourcesforthestudyoftheScrolls,andstimulatesandfostersresearchonthe

Scrolls, integratingsuchareassuchasbiblicalstudies,Jewish literatureandthoughtof

theSecondTemplePeriod,earliestChristianityandtheNewTestament,andthestudy

ofearlyrabbinicalJudaism.Theresourcespageoffersameticulousbibliographicallistingofpublications innineteen languages;Afrikaans,Arabic,Czech,Danish,Dutch,Finnish,

French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish,

Portuguese,Russian,Spanish,andSwedish.

TheDeadSeaScrolls,ElectronicReferenceLibrarymakesavailablethecomplete

set of digitized images, (2,700 photographs) and full texts from the eleven caves of

KhirbetQumran.2

Figure2:TheDeadSeaScrolls,ElectronicreferenceLibrary,

VolumeI,OxfordUniversityPressandBrillAcademicPublishers,1997

The launchoftheCDROMcamesoonafterthe IsraelAntiquitiesAuthoritycelebrated

the releaseof theDead SeaScrolls to theworldat large in1991and soon to follow

wouldbethepublicationofextensiveMicroficheCollectionandaFacsimileEditionof

theDeadSea Scrolls (1991) inbook format, in two folio volumes.Soonafter that, in

1991theHuntingtonLibrarymadeitscollectionavailabletothepubliconmicrofilm.3

The images in the Electronic Reference Library Volume 1 are annotated with cave

number, text title, inventory number, and links to other images containing the same

scrollorfragment,withcrossreferencestothemicroficheeditionpublishedbyE.J.Brill

andthefacsimileEditionoftheBiblicalArchaeologySociety.Asearchablelistofbiblical

2The Dead Sea Scrolls, Electronic Reference Library, Volume I (Oxford/Leiden: Oxford University Press

and Brill). Images are reproduced by permission of the Israel Antiquities Authority OptiMedia Ltd, 1997.3 Huntington Library Collection on Microfilm. Los Angeles: The Microfilm Company of California, Inc.,

1991.

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passagesattested to theQumrancorpus isalso included.All imageswere scannedat

300dpi.andmaybemanipulatedonscreenwithzoom,brightnessandcontrastbuttons

embedded in the interface. As well as the panning and zooming tools built into the

program, individual imagescanbe flipped90degreesclockwiseorcounterclockwise.

Thisintuitivemanipulationfacilitatesthecomparisonoftheimageswithintheprogram

whichthenmaybecopiedoutsideoftheprogramorprinted.Thearchivedindexisfully

searchable using specific terms, wildcards and/or Boolean operators. The Dead SeaScrolls Electronic Reference Library provides researchers with a comprehensive

collectionof referencematerial,extensive searchoptionsandpliantdigitized images,

makingindividualscholarlyresearchawayfromtheoriginalmanuscriptsfeasibleallover

theworld.

TheDeadSeaScrollsElectronicReferenceLibrary,2 isaCDROMproduced in1999.4

TheCDROMiscomposedofacomprehensive,fullyindexed,andcrosslinkedcollection

ofnonbiblical texts,both inHebrewandEnglish translation,aswellasa selectionof

highresolutiondigitizedimagesofDeadSeaScrollsfragments.

Figure3:TheDeadSeaScrolls,ElectronicReferenceLibrary,2

EditedbyEmanualTov,KonininkijkeBrillNV,Leiden,TheNetherlands,1999,

Inaddition,theCDROMcontainsrelevantreferencematerialforscholarlyworkonthe

Scrolls and related literature. The search capabilities of the WordCruncher software

allowuserstofindanyoralloccurrencesofwordsandphrases inanyoralltexts.This

practicalreferencetoolcontainseditedHebrewandAramaictranscriptionsandEnglish

translationsofallthenonbiblicalscrolls.Presentedonfacingpages,themanuscriptsor

fragments are arranged by serial number from Cave 1 to 11. The Databases

approximately900 imageswerescannedat400dpionanAgfaArcusscanner.Eachof

the images is tagged to,and correspondswith,aparticular transcriptional text,which

allows theuser toviewmore thanone image simultaneouslyandmaybeenlarged to

500%within the interface.There isanunlimiteddistributionof thedatabase,allowing

4The Dead Sea Scrolls, Electronic Reference Library, Vol. 2 (Ed. Emanuel Tov; Leiden/Provo, Utah: the

Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies and its Center for the Preservation of Ancient

Religious Texts at Brigham Young University; Brill: 1999).

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images and transcriptions to be made available to an individual or institution at a

relativelylowcost.

TheDeadSeaScrollsattheIsraelMuseum

AsthepermanentlocationofthejewelsoftheDeadSeaScrolls,theIsraelMuseumhas

a special responsibility to conserve, display, and interpret the manuscripts for thehundredsofthousandsofvisitorswhoflocktotheShrineoftheBookeveryyeartosee

theScrollsforthemselves.Theinstitutionalwebsitehasthereforeacriticalroletoplay

bothinpreparingthevisitorbeforethevisitorenhancingtheexperienceafterthevisit

by filling in the gaps or strengthening the understanding of the Scrolls and their

meaning. At the same time, the museum acknowledges that many of the web visits

come from people who will probably not actually come into the museum in their

lifetime,but they tooare curiousabout the scrollsandmayalsowish to learnabout

themfromafar.

Thewebsite,thereforeneedstocatertodifferentcommunities,and incontrasttothe

more academic nature of the Orion Centre, the museum has to present a far more

experiential approach in keeping with the museum as a social space of informal

learning.

Figure4:HomepageoftheShrineoftheBookattheIsraelMuseumwebsite

Oneofthewaysofgettingasenseofbeingtherewithoutleavingyourseatisthrough

the virtual tour; a photorealistic walkthrough of the museum campus. The various

hotspots throughout the tour lead visitors toboth theupperand lower levelsof the

ShrineoftheBookcomplexandinviteyouintotheexhibitionspacesthemselveslocated

underneaththewhitedomeandblackbasaltwall.

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Figure5:OnlinevirtualtouroftheShrineoftheBook upperlevel

Theinteractivemapalsoguidesvisitorsalongtheirrouteandservestocontextualizethe

experience for the visitor, while preserving a sense of the location of the actual

manuscriptsinthephysicalgallery.

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Figure8:TheGreatIsaiahScroll,envisionedandfundedbyGeorgeBlumenthal

withdigitalphotographybyArdonBarHama

ThescrollshavebeencreatedasaFlashapplication,enablingvisitorsfromalloverthe

worldtoopenupthescrollsandviewthemforthemselveswiththeaidofamagnifying

glassforaloserlookatthescholarlydetails.Ourweeklystatisticsinformusthatthisan

extremely popular part of our website and from the impressive number of hits we

receive from all parts of the world we are confident that this service is greatly

appreciatedbyourvisitors.

Displayingthescrolls inthiswaynotonlymakesthemaccessibleonline, italsoextends

the experience of the physical display in the museum where, due to conservation

limitationsofdisplayingthescrollsinthegalleries,onlysinglesectionsofthescrollscan

beexhibitedatanygiventime.Tothisend,boththeGreatIsaiahScrollandtheTemple

Scrollarepresentedona largescreen in theDorotFoundation InformationandStudy

Center,whichwillsoonofferourvisitorsanopportunitytobeabletoperusetheentire

scrollsforthemselvesusingatouchscreen.

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Figure9:TheGreatIsaiahScrollonalargetouchscreen,envisionedandfundedby

GeorgeBlumenthalwithdigitalphotographybyArdonBarHama

Figure10:ViewingtheTempleScrollonlinewithmagnifyingglass

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AlsolocatedintheDorotFoundationInformationandStudyCenteronthemainwallis

the beguiling installation created by the digital artist, Ariel Malka. The narratives are

representedas tiny, textualvignettesand interpret the storyof Isaiah in theirunique

way..Accordingtotheartist,ArielMalkathegenerationsofwanderingsfromEgyptian

oppression are depicted as emerging from chaotic waters to freedom in the Sinai

wilderness; from theBabylonianexile to restoration in theLandof Israel;where theyculminate in Ezekiels vision of the Water of Life flowing into the Sea of Death. The

JavaScriptorium5chartsthejourneyofthePeopleoftheBookinaneverendingloopof

dynamic, microcalligraphy inspired by medieval Jewish scribal art. The electronic

renditionofthebiblicaldecreeAndletthemmakemeasanctuary,thatImaydwellin

theirmidst(Exodus25:8)appearsasacloudbydayandacolumnoffirebynight.ThedivinecolumnlinksHeavenandEarthasanaxismundi,representingboththecenterofthe world, and the sanctuary that resides within the Qumran Sect the collective

SpiritualTempleintheJudeandesert.

ZoomoutontheSeaofChaos...Adivinecolumn,linkbetweenHeavenandEarthis

representedatthecenteroftheworld.

Thesanctuaryisrepresentedatthecenterof

FromAxisMunditoTerraIncognita...TheSinaiwilderness.

LookingthroughtheIshtarGateatBabylon,5See the screen shots of the work reflecting a new kind of scriptorium; this time written in the computer

language of Java; The 3D animation on the theme of desert wandering, and the concept of sanctuary alludes

both to the programing language of the software in which it was compiled Java, created by Sun,

Microsystems as well as to the ancient tradition of scribal work that took place in a scriptorium.

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theDesertEncampment,amongthepeopleofIsrael.

freshlyconqueredbyKingCyrusofPersia...Emancipationoftheoppressed.

Beginningofthesecondexodus...

Ezekiel'svisionoftheWaterofLifeflowingintotheSeaofDeath.

Figure11:JavaScriptoriumArielMalka,isbasedonaJavaapplicationthatmakesuse

ofOpenGLtogeneraterealtime3Danimation,

Walkingin3Dworldsatrulysocialexperience

While the interfacesdescribedabovearedesigned for the individualvisitor sittingon

theirown in frontof thescreen, the followingexamplesof3Dworldsallows for real

time interaction and a more social kind of experience. The Shrine Educational

Experience (SEE)wasaprojectconceived in2001,andwasdevelopedover2years

togetherbyShrineoftheBookattheIsraelMuseum,Jerusalem,andthePolitecnicodi

Milano, Italy, with the support of the Dorot Foundation. This project brought young

adultstogetherfromallovertheworldsynchronously,wheretheymetintheonline,inthe virtual Shrine of the Book to meet, learn, play, and discuss issues related to the

famousDead Sea Scrollsand the livesof thepeopleof theQumran communitywho

oncelivedbytheDeadSea.

Theworldtheymetinwasaspeciallydeveloped3Denvironment,whereseveralusers,

representedbyavatars, (graphicanimations)entered,and interacted together in real

time. The students cooperated through interaction with the environment, and with

eachother,manipulatingobjectsandchattingastheywent.Ourchallengein2002was

to find a way to engage students, where the key to the success or failure of these

environmentswasmeasuredinitsabilitytoholdacriticalmassofusersinrealtime;notonly in the technical sense,butalso intellectually.At this time, themuseumand the

Polytecnicoweredesigninganenvironmentthatwouldbefamiliartoourstudentsfrom

onlinecomputergamesthatwerepopularatthetime,DungeonsandDragonsandtheSims,forexample.But,whatwewereactuallyseekingwaswhatwefelttobeakindof'socialglue';thekindofexperiencethatcausedtheplayertobecometotallyengagedin

theenvironment.Unlikethebattlescenesthatstudentswere familiarwith fromtheir

onlinegamingandhadkept thempreviouslyglued to their screens, thisengagement

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stimulated intense discussion about issues that we realized that really touched their

livesinmeaningfulways.

Figure12:TheShrineEducationalExperience(SEE),2001,developedtogetherbythe

IsraelMuseum,Jerusalem,andthePolitecnicodiMilano,Italy

The highly structured, educational program that was geared to schools, took place

duringschooltimeandinaccordancewiththedifferentnationalcurriculainIsrael,Italy,

GermanyandSwitzerland.The fourweekly sessions tookplace inaneducationaland

highly structuredenvironment where students introduced themselveswith theirown

PowerPointpresentationsshownintheonlineinterfaceandwentontolearnaboutthe

Essenes and what it might have meant to leave their homes, to move down to the

desert,anddedicatethemselvestotheQumrancommunity.

The series of challenges and quizzes brought these discussions right into their

classroom,andthetestsessionsbrought25classroomsfromthedifferentcountriesinto

theonlineVirtualShrineandQumransimulatedenvironment.Wewereamazedtosee

howengagedthestudentsbecameandhowmuchtheywerepreparedtodiveintothe

resources and prepare their own contributions that were consequently shared with

their peers in the final session. We presented our project at conferences and in

academicpublications,andtheSEEprojecthassincebecomethebenchmarkforvirtual

worldsformuseums.6

6Susan Hazan, From the First Millennium to the Third, the Content is the Message! in

Museums and the Web 2001: Selected Papers from an International Conference, ICHIM

2001, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy (ed. David Bearman and Jennifer Trant,

Archives & Museum Informatics, Pittsburgh, USA, 2001)

http://www.archimuse.com/publishing/ichim01_vol1/hazan.pdf;

S. Hazan, Paolo Paolini, and Nicoletta Di Blas, The SEE Experience: Edutainment in3D Virtual Worlds, inMuseums and the Web 2003: Conference Proceedings (ed. David

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http://www.archimuse.com/publishing/ichim01_vol1/hazan.pdfhttp://conference.archimuse.com/biblio/author/Paolinihttp://conference.archimuse.com/biblio/author/Paolinihttp://www.archimuse.com/publishing/ichim01_vol1/hazan.pdf


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Thiswasacriticallearningexperienceforus.ThePolitecnicoandmuseumteams

learneda lotaboutthetechnologyand interactionaswedevelopedthe interfaceand

whentheprogramwentintothetestphase,wefoundthatwealsolearnedagreatdeal

fromthestudentsthemselves.Theyoungadultsweretotallysavvyonlineshortcutting

theirway to theanswersby reading thewebaddressat the topof thepage (toour

dismay) and simply moving on to the next number instead of running around in the

treasure hunt. However, they did discoverto their delighta bug in the program,whenanavatarflewup intotheocularonthewhitedomethatcausedthestudentto

getstuckinthehole.Inspiteofthebugsandshortcuts,wedidrealizethatthiswasan

excellent method of bringing quality content into the classroom, and we were

encouragedby theenthusiasmofthestudentsand their teacherswhoparticipated in

thefourweeklysessions.

As3Dworldsdeveloped,themuseumrebuilttheShrineoftheBookasavirtualspace;a

spacewhichcouldbetakenupbyvisitorsonlineasvirtualavatars,thistimeusingthe

proprietary environment of Linden Labs7 Second Life. Faithfully modeled on the

blueprint of the Shrine of the Book complex, the 3D world reproduced the physical

space invirtualminiature.Muchas thephotorealisticvirtual toursenabledvisitors to

movearoundthemirroroftheShrinecomplex,the3Dworldofferedasimilarsenseof

beingtherebutwithonemajordifferencethisspacewasnotsimplyaprojectionon

the local computer, but a fully social space where visitors traveled the campus with

fellowavatars.Thisenablednewkindsof social interactionsand,critically,a senseof

sharingthevisitwithothersinrealtime.

Bearman and Jennifer Trant; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA , Archives & Museum

Informatics,


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Figure13:MappingouttheShrineoftheBookinSecondLife

Figure14:TheshrineoftheBookasseenfromthepathleadingupfromtheArt

Garden

Figure15:Thewhitedomeandblackwallatvirtualsunset

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