Construction of the scroll

Qumran scrolls were written on parchment made from wet, limed unhaired skins of sheep, goats, and calves. Majority of scrolls were written on parchment and about 50 of them were written on papyrus. Length of the scroll varied and they were prepared in advanced for the particular work that was to be written on them. The longest Qumran biblical scroll containing the Isaiah was about 7.5m (24.6ft) long. Production of these scrolls involved variety of skills, tools and materials. The parchment-making process starts with washing of the fresh skin and soaking in water to cause it to swell, and once the hair is scraped off, if the skin had to be tanned it would be treated with some form of vegetable or organic matter. Another approach was also involved in preparation of the skin that is dressing the hide with alum and dusting it with powdered chalk. They had to soften the skin before writing on the surface and this is done by beating on it.

 The most impressive examples of their crafts are the small skins used to make the Tefillin discovered at Qumran. They had to be folded into tiny bundles for it to be inserted in the Tefillin. The writing on them is the smallest script yet discovered from this period. The Tefillin was made out of Vellum which made out of calfskin, sheepskin obtained from small animal.

Papyrus scrolls were made out of strips of reed gummed together in layers. The strips were laid across at right angles and either beaten or pressed together. With the completion of the process the sheets are polished with pumic and cut to standard size and sewn together to form a scroll. The Scribe would then mark the edges of the columns by scoring the margins and then he would rule the lines. The size and availability of parchment depends on the number of columns and the size of the margins at top, bottom and between the columns. The pens were made out of reeds and the ink was made from a carbon based dye solution. Standard, and style of writing varied considerably both formal and cursive scripts were used but variety of styles of writing had been used which claims that 95% of Qumran scrolls were written by different people who lived at Qumran.

As for research process for this blog I mostly used the book of “The complete world of The Dead Sea Scrolls written by Philip R. Davies, George J. Brooke and Phillip R Callaway which gives detail information of the topic I researched and the making of a scroll is celery illustrated in this book. The websites I used in finding information for the construction of scrolls were Papyri page, Academy of BJE site and Facsimile editions web site.

Bibliography:

Davis, R Philip, Brooke, J George & Callaway, R Phillip 2002, The complete world of dead sea Scrolls, Thames & Hudson Ltd, London.

Facsimile Editions Limited 2011, Parchment, Viewed  4 October 2011< http://www.facsimile-editions.com/en/glossary/#p>

Theodore Bernhardt 2001, Leather parchment and vellum, Viewed  4 October 2011< http://papyri.tripod.com/vellum/vellum.html>

BJE Academy 2011, Tefillin, NSW Board of Jewish Education, Viewed 4 October 2011< http://www.bje.org.au/learning/judaism/symbols/tefillin.html>

Facsimile Editions Limited 2011, How Parchment is made for Facsimile Editions, Viewed  4 October 2011<  http://www.facsimile-editions.com/en/me/#parchmentmaking

Reed pens and the bronze inkwell found at Qumran.

(Left) Reconstructions of finished scrolls, showing two types of tabs and fastenings. 

Part of 4Q448(Prayer for king Jonathan) showing the original tab in place.

Davis, R Philip, Brooke, J George & Callaway, R Phillip 2002, The complete world of dead sea Scrolls, Thames & Hudson ltd, London, pp. 66-67.