ABSTRACT
The nature of the Qumran settlement is an ongoing subject of scholarly debate and controversy. Whereas the site’s original excavator, Roland de Vaux, identified Qumran as a sectarian settlement, other scholars have proposed that it was something else (e.g. a villa, manor house, fort, commercial entrepot, or pottery manufacturing center). Scholars who identify Qumran as anything but a sectarian settlement must argue that there is no connection between the site and the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found in the nearby caves. This paper is a case study of a toilet excavated by de Vaux at Qumran, which illustrates how archaeological and literary sources can be used together to gain a more complete understanding of the past.
