The Mystery of the Copper Scroll of Qumran

by Robert Feather

  I returned from the Jerusalem Conference in July 1997, reinvigorated with some of the information I had learned and by the people I had talked to, and excited with the theory that was beginning to form in my mind – of how the puzzle of the Copper Scroll might be solved, and from where the treasures might have originally come.

  My own view is rather different from other scholars. I do not believe the treasures came from the Second Jerusalem Temple, as the Qumran-Essenes were violently opposed to this Temple and its priestly activities. Whilst part of the treasures may possibly have come from the First Temple at Jerusalem, as descriptions in the Copper Scroll certainly refer to Temple-associated objects, when we have unravelled the secrets of the Copper Scroll it will become patently clear that another Temple is described – and that the Qumran-Essenes were guardians, not just of treasure, but also of secrets that belonged to a much earlier time and a very distant place.

  The scroll had been engraved on a thin copper sheet in an unusual form of ‘cursive’ ancient Hebrew script. Although (from palaeographic studies), it is now thought to have been copied at a date between 150 BCE and 70 CE, a number of scholars, notably John Elwolde,22 (who is working on a Hebrew Dictionary Project at the University of Sheffield), have pointed out that there are enigmatic passages in the Copper Scroll that correspond to early Biblical Hebrew – which dates back to 800 or 700 BCE – and that the scroll contains many unique word constructions not in use in mainstream Judaism at the time of its copying.

  The presence of Greek letters interspersed at the end of sections of the text had aroused my interest. Their meaning was not understood and they appeared to be some kind of cryptic code.*5 Although Greek influences were pervasive at the time of the engraving of the Copper Scroll, the only texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls written in Greek are of Biblical passages relating to the Old Testament. Greek does not appear in Qumran-Essene sectarian texts, so why should Greek letters be included in the Copper Scroll?

  Many theories have been put forward to explain these apparently random letters. They are variously considered to be made by scribes as reference marks of some sort, initials of place-names, entry dates, or location directions, but none of these explanations is accepted as conclusive, and they remain a puzzle.

  The numbering units given in the text, which relate to the amounts of treasure, are also not clearly understood by modern translators. The numerals are in an unsophisticated long-hand form, involving apparently unnecessary duplication.23

  There were other ‘anomalies’ for which there appeared to be no satisfactory answers. My metallurgical experience kept on bringing me back to these unanswered questions: Why should a non-materialistic community go to such trouble to preserve this information on a copper scroll? Where did they get the copper from? How could they afford its very high cost? No other Dead Sea Scroll was engraved on copper, nor were any known Hebrew texts from anywhere else, prior to this period.

  The questions were beginning to mount and I started looking for scientific, rather than scriptural, ways of analysing the content and material of the scroll. I decided to concentrate first on the metallurgy, the technique of fabrication and the metrology of the Copper Scroll.

  CHAPTER THREE

  METALLURGY AND METROLOGY

  The first thing I decided to do was to look more closely at the listings of treasure in the Copper Scroll, and the various translations of the text, and to try and bring an inter-disciplinary, or lateral-thinking type of approach to the unresolved problems.

  For each of the sixty-four locations*6 listed in the Copper Scroll, the description of each item of treasure follows a set pattern: a geographical and, sometimes, a directional clue; an instruction to dig; a measurement in cubits;1 a weight amount, invariably translated as Talents; and the type of treasure.

  The unit of weight, given in the Copper Scroll as a ‘K’, is assumed by modern scholars to refer to the Biblical Talent. This is known to be equivalent to about 76lb or 35kg – a huge unit of weight to use when dealing with small items such as gold earrings, weighing 30–40g. Remember that the tonnages of precious metals given in the conventional translations are twenty-six tonnes (26,000kg) of gold and sixty-five tonnes (65,000kg) of silver!

  All my metallurgical and scientific experience told me that, with the relatively primitive metal refining techniques that would have been available over 2,000 years ago,2 the units of weight in use for precious metals would have to have been many orders of magnitude less than those assumed by modern translators.

  GOLD AND SILVER

  I started looking at historical references relating to precious metals and found, from a 1993 NATO Conference on ‘Prehistoric Gold’ and various other references,3 that the list of treasures in the Copper Scroll, based on the conventionally translated units of weight, would have accounted for more than 25 per cent of the world’s entire supply of gold at that time, and the sixty-five tonnes of silver would have accounted for the stock of the entire world!

  Figure 2: Graph showing the cumulative amounts of gold mined throughout the world between 4000 BCE and 68 CE.

  The graph in Figure 2 shows that even at the time of Jesus, the total tonnage of gold existing in the world was no more than about 150 tonnes, and silver was, prior to about 900 BCE, rarer than gold.4 The big surge in gold production came between 1850 and 1900 (with the Californian gold rush), when more gold was mined in fifty years than in the previous 5,000. Up to 1850 no more than 10,000 tonnes of gold had ever been mined. Even today, the total gold mined throughout history only totals about 130,000 tonnes.

  This last figure may seem rather surprising when one thinks of today’s widespread use of gold in jewellery, industry, dentistry, decorative furnishings, space vehicles, electronics, or just held as bullion and coinage. But gold is one of the most malleable and ductile of all metals. One ounce can be beaten into an area covering 100sq. feet – so thin (5 millionths/inch or 0.0000127cm) that it can transmit green light – or be drawn into wire 80km in length!

  Figure 3: Graph showing cumulative amounts of gold mined throughout the world between 68 and 1998 CE.

  For a quarter of the world’s supply of gold to have been in either the First or Second Temples at Jerusalem, let alone to have survived after their sacking, seems extremely unlikely. Similarly, it is hard, if not impossible to believe that an isolated ascetic sect like the Qumran-Essenes could have, on their own account, acquired such vast resources.

  Something was seriously wrong with the conventional translations of the weights given in the Copper Scroll!

  PROVENANCE OF THE COPPER SCROLL

  I decided to investigate the background of the scroll in detail, focusing first on the aspect I knew about most – the metal itself.

  It is well known that the Romans and Greeks used bronze (an alloy of copper and tin) as an engraving medium, but the use of copper on its own was restricted to non-literary texts. The few referenced examples of the use of copper – such as the Lex Coloniae Genetivae Juliae,5 inscribed in 43 BCE – are, on examination, found to be bronze engravings.

  The use of copper as a writing material was, in fact, unknown in Judaea at or before the time of the Qumran-Essenes. Its use was also unknown in other Middle Eastern countries but, significantly, it was not unknown for ancient Egyptian texts to be engraved on copper. One of the rare surviving examples, said to be of a copper alloy plaque, was found at Medinet Habu,6 known in ancient times as Djamet and located at the southern end of the Theban west bank opposite Luxor. Engraved in Egyptian demotic writing,*7 it dates from the Roman period of first century-BCE Egypt, and is similar to the Qumran Copper Scroll, being a temple inventory.

  A much older example of copper engraving, on an Egyptian temple of the time of Ramses III, c.1156 BCE, is described in the Harris Papyrus, which was also found at Medinet Habu, and is now in the British Museum. This remarkable document measures 133ft in length, and is the longest Egyptian papyrus ever discovered. It recites the lifetime achievements of Pharaoh Ramses III, who re
igned 1189–1156 BCE, and also gives an inventory of all his possessions. In these lists we find mention of stocks of copper being used for engraving.7

  I made for thee great tablets of silver, in beaten work, engraved with the great name of thy majesty, carved with the graver’s tool, bearing the decrees and the inventories of the houses and temples which I made in Egypt, during my reign on earth; in order to administer them in thy name forever and ever. Thou are their protector answering for them.

  I made for thee other tablets of copper in beaten work, of a mixture of six [parts], of the colour of gold, engraved and carved with the graver’s tool with the great name of thy majesty, with the house regulations of the temples; likewise the many praises and adorations, which I made for thy name. Thy heart was glad at hearing them, O lord of gods.8

  This is the only known reference to copper tablets or plaques being used for engraving in Egypt. The Egyptians of this period were well able to distinguish between copper and bronze, as the two metals are referred to quite separately in the Harris Papyrus.9

  This early Egyptian example, and the lack of any other known examples of engraving on copper outside Egypt before the time of the Qumran-Essenes, make it even more surprising that this strange, isolated sect were able to make use of such a rare and expensive metal. The only place in the Middle East where copper was used, albeit rarely, was in Egypt. There is clear evidence that engraving lists on copper was being practised as early as 1200 BCE, and relatively pure copper was available from the bronze age onwards, 1550–1300 BCE (Eighteenth Dynasty).

  Where did the Qumran-Essenes get the copper from then? Why did they use it in the first place? It was not used in Judaea at the time of the Qumran-Essenes, and would have been very difficult to obtain, not to mention extremely expensive. How did they learn the engraving skills and rivetting techniques that were applied to the Copper Scroll?

  The logical place for learning such skills would be Egypt, as the Egyptians had an established tradition of advanced metallurgical knowledge. There had been a long association between the Hebrew tribes and Egypt. Could it be possible that the expertise and copper materials were brought out of Egypt with the Hebrews when Moses led them out of slavery?

  ASPECTS OF ANCIENT COPPER TECHNOLOGY

  It is quite reasonable to assume that the format of copper tablet production in the time of Ramses III had changed little with time, and was similar in the period of Ramses II – the pharaoh generally assumed to be ruling at the time of the Hebrew Exodus. In fact it would be quite usual for a pharaoh’s son to inherit his father’s possessions. If the raw material for the Copper Scroll came out of Egypt, it would almost certainly have been in the flat, beaten copper format described in the Harris Papyrus.10

  Three separate pieces of flat copper were joined together to form the Copper Scroll. The equal sizes of the pieces indicates that this joining was done after its engraving, to produce one long scroll, rather than as a repair to breaks in the material. By the turn of the millennium brazing, welding and soldering were still not common techniques available to the metal fabricator.11 So it is not surprising that the Copper Scroll was joined by rivetting, but it is the use of copper rivets, the neatness, hole size and straight-line nature of the rivetting that is of interest. It is identical to the type of rivetting in use at the time of the Egyptian Eighteenth Dynasty.12 The significance of this will become clear later.

  Apart from the scroll’s mechanical form, the other two main characteristics that I considered might enable a comparison to be made of the copper materials from Egypt and those from Qumran are its chemical composition and weight.

  Chemical composition

  The ancient Egyptians were highly skilled in metalwork, and their expertise in smelting and working copper can be traced back to at least 3000 BCE. For me, as a metallurgist, there is a certain thrill in looking into the face of the ‘oldest known metallurgist in the world’, preserved in all his long-bearded solemnity for over 3,000 years on a cartonnage*8 above a ‘mummy’ in the Museum of Cairo.13

  The cupriferrous ores**9 available to the Egyptians came from the Eastern Desert, Nubia and Sinai and were readily reducible from their combined states, enabling very pure and easily workable copper to be produced. A typical analysis of an early Dynasty copper dagger, shows it contained 99.5 per cent copper, 0.39 per cent arsenic, 0.08 per cent iron, and a trace of lead.14 By the time of the New Kingdom and the Eighteenth Dynasty (c.1350 BCE), the technique of smelting using crucibles and reed blow-pipes had been refined, and leather-enclosed clay vessels with an inserted blow-pipe were being utilized. This technique enabled very pure copper – of the order of 99.9 per cent pure – to be produced.

  Chemical analysis of the Copper Scroll has shown it too to have originally been made from very pure copper (99.9 per cent), with traces of arsenic, tin and iron – almost identical in chemical composition to the copper being produced in the Eighteenth Dynasty!15

  Weight

  I then started to think about what the actual weight of the Copper Scroll might have been in its original state. In its present form the scroll is heavily corroded – during its 2,000-year sojourn in a dank, warm cave near to the salty environment of the Dead Sea, it had become almost fully converted from copper into copper oxides. The original uncorroded copper material is estimated to have been 1mm thick, and each of the three sections it was made from measured 30cm x 80cm.16 The total weight of the pure copper on which the scroll was originally engraved would therefore have been:

  3 x (30 x 80) x 0.1 x 8.93 = 6,429.6g

  where 8.93 is the density of copper in g/cc

  So where did this large chunk of extremely pure copper come from? Can it possibly be from a batch of copper described in the Harris Papyrus?

  The weight of each of the copper tablets described in the Harris Papyrus as being part of the ‘stock’ held by Pharaoh Ramses III, is given as 205.5 Deben, and there were four tablets in all.

  The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt17 gives the Deben as a unit of weight, used for weighing metals such as copper, as 93.3g. From this we can calculate that each of the copper tablets weighed:

  205.5 x 93.3g = 19,173.15g, or 42.3lb

  Weighing around 42lb, when it came to actually engraving a copper tablet and carrying it around, it would almost certainly have been reduced into more convenient smaller, equal weights. A more convenient size would have been 1/10 or 1/9 of the original – typical divisors known to have been used by the Egyptians when dealing with the weighing of copper. If the original tablet weight was, in fact, divided into nine equal sections, each section would weigh:

  19,173.15/9 = 2,130.35g

  If three of these smaller sections were then rivetted together (comfortably accommodating the text needed to describe the sixty-four locations of treasure mentioned in the Copper Scroll), the final weight would be:

  2,130.35 x 3 = 6,391.05g

  This is remarkably close to the estimated weight of the Copper Scroll in its original state, of 6,429.6g.

  To summarize, the correspondences between the Copper Scroll and copper material available in Egypt at the time of the Hebrew Exodus, are as follows:

  Egyptian Copper The Copper Scroll

  c. 1200 BCE c. 100 BCE

  Mechanical Format Flat, beaten Flat, beaten

  Method of joining Rivetting, straight-line Rivetting, straight-line

  Chemical composition 99.9% Copper, traces of Arsenic and Iron 99.9% Copper, traces of Arsenic and Iron

  Unit Weight 6,391g 6,429g

  The closeness in weight of the Copper Scroll to exact sections of the copper tablets described in the Harris Papyrus would not seem to be just coincidence. It is within 0.6 per cent, indicating we can be 99.4 per cent certain, in terms of weight correlation alone, that the Copper Scroll came from a piece of ancient Egyptian copper, similar to those once in the possession of Ramses III.18 When other factors – relating to physical and chemical characteristics of the materials – are compared, the connection b
ecomes irresistible.

  NUMBERING AND WEIGHING SYSTEMS

  What about the form of writing and units of measurement used in the Copper Scroll – do they have any comparable Egyptian overtones, particularly the numbering units of Talents, Minas and Staters mentioned previously? I began comparing the contents of the Copper Scroll with Egyptian texts, dating back from 500 BCE, and came to another startling conclusion. The numbering units and weights used in the scroll were not of Canaanite or Judaean origin, where the Qumran-Essenes resided, but Egyptian! Indeed, the numbering system in the Copper Scroll is typical of that in use in Egypt around 1300 BCE. The Egyptian system used repetitive single vertical strokes, up to the number nine, combined with repetitive decimal units for larger numbers. A good example of this can be seen in Column 6 of the Copper Scroll (see Plate 3), where repeated single down strokes are used to represent the number seven. (See also Appendix, column 6, line 13.)

  I returned again to the problem of the weights generally ascribed to the treasures by modern translators of the Copper Scroll. This time I applied an Egyptian perspective.

  The ancient Egyptians had developed a system of weights specifically designed for weighing precious metals. This system was based on the ‘Kite’, a unit weighing approximately 10g, but sometimes used as a double unit (KK) of 20.4g. I believe that it is no coincidence that the ‘hard ch’ sound of the weight term used in the Copper Scroll text equates to the Egyptian ‘K’ in ‘Kite’! When I used these ancient Egyptian weight units, typical of the period prior to 1000 BCE, to calculate the quantities of gold, silver and jewellery mentioned in the scroll, I obtained rather more realistic weights than those given earlier. The approximate totals of precious metals mentioned in the scroll now became: