The Mystery of the Copper Scroll of Qumran

by Robert Feather

Saqqara was the main cemetery for Memphis, dating back to 3000 BCE, and contains burial sites from the First to the Sixth Dynasties, and enormous shaft-tombs from the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. It is dominated by the huge step pyramid of King Djoser of the Third Dynasty, dating to 2700 BCE. Much of the area is still unexcavated. Work that has been done, digging down through the layers of Roman and quarry debris, shows the remains of Eighteenth Dynasty chapels and burial chambers, indicating that burials were taking place here at the time of Akhenaten.

  Reference in the Copper Scroll to burial mound (as opposed to tomb) is perhaps significant. The earliest part of the cemetery is to the north and is densely packed with mudbrick Mastaba or burial mounds. Plate 13 shows the burial district at Saqqara.

  Column 6

  Column 6 brings us back to the Temple, in the inner chamber of the platform of the Double Gate, facing East… This is fairly unambiguous. There was only one Double Gate facing east in the Great Temple of Akhetaten, and the inner massive doors consisted of two solid, corniced towers with jambs projecting from the inner face. To quote N. de G. Davies:

  The Passage (to the Outer Court) was barred by two double-leaved gates. The inner one being high and unwieldy, a similar but smaller gate was set within its jambs, contracting the passage.29

  The location for our treasures is therefore: ‘In the Northern entrance (tower), buried 3 cubits (1.5m), is a pitcher containing one scroll, and beneath that forty-two Talents (KK).’

  Paraphrasing the next piece of text, we have buried 9 cubits (4.6m) under the inner chamber of the watch tower that faces East, there were twenty-one Talents (KK). Security of the Great Temple was obviously of prime importance, and as well as double protective walls and gates, armed guards would have been on constant duty. The ‘watchtower’ is depicted in various inscriptions of the Great Temple as a Pylon-like structure, ‘formed by a portico of columns, eight in line and two deep, broken by the entrance (to the East), and with towers and masts reaching high above it in the centre’.30

  You will recall that after the ‘Crock of Gold’ find pinpointed in Column 1, I mentioned there was another convincing ‘gold link’ between the Qumran-Essenes and Akhetaten. The next part of Column 6 takes us to this link: In the Tomb (?) of the Queen, in the western side, in John Allegro’s version.

  This phraseology must be assumed to refer to the burial place of either Queen Tiyi, or Queen Nefertiti, respectively, Akhenaten’s mother or his wife.31

  Garcia Martinez takes the key word to be her ‘residence’ rather than ‘tomb’, and John Allegro is not too happy with his own translation of ‘tomb’ as he equates the word here with ‘dwelling’. However there is no evidence that Nefertiti (or Tiyi) had her own Palace, other than the one she shared with Akhenaten in Central Akhetaten – unless the Northern Palace was her preferred place of residence, some 3.2km to the north.

  A deeper excavation, down to 6.1m (12 cubits) in the western section of Nefertiti’s Tomb, located in the Royal Wadi, might reveal the twenty-seven Talents (KK) buried there.

  Royal tombs would, of course, be the most vulnerable to tomb robbers and I fear that is exactly what has happened to the 27 KK. I consider that this reference in Column 6 is once again to items that have already been found; the items now reside in Edinburgh, Scotland and in Liverpool, England!

  In 1882 local grave-robbers found a number of articles of gold jewellery near or at the tomb of Nefertiti. Villagers of Hagg Qandil, near El-Amarna, later sold them to the Reverend W. J. Loftie, a collector of Egyptian relics. He, in turn, sold the trove to W. Talbot Ready in London. Loftie kept back two rings for himself, which later came into the possession of the author Sir H. Rider Haggard, and eventually the City of Liverpool Museum where they now reside. The London dealer sold the balance of jewellery to the Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, where they might have lain unrecognized to this day were it not for the astuteness of Professor A. M. Blackman. Re-examining the find in 1917, he concluded that some of it was from the Eighteenth Dynasty, particularly a heavy gold signet ring incised with the cartouche of Nefertiti, a ring with a frog-shaped bezel inscribed ‘Mut Mistress of Heaven’, and two ear studs embossed in the shape of a flower bloom. The jewellery from Hagg Quandil is shown in Plates 14 and 15.

  Figure 20: Schematic of Solomon’s Temple and the Great Temple at Akhetaten.

  Considering this information, my guess was that if the Eighteenth-Dynasty items were separated from the non-Eightenth-Dynasty items in the Edinburgh collection, and the two rings that our reverend gentleman kept back were added back in, the total weight would come to either 183.6g or 550.8g – these weights being specified in the Copper Scroll according to the three main translators, when using my Egyptian value of 20.4g for the term KK. John Allegro reads the reference to the weight of the treasure in Column 6 of the scroll as 9 KK, whilst Garcia Martinez and Geza Vermes (whom I go along with on this occasion for technical reasons) translate it as 27 KK.

  When we add up the weights of all the Eighteenth-Dynasty gold items and the gold/precious bead necklaces that came from the original Hagg Qandil find, the total weights come remarkably close to 560g – almost exactly the weight specified in the Copper Scroll.32

  Column 7

  Finally in Column 6 and at the beginning of Column 7 we are led by John Allegro to: the dam-sluice(?) which is in the Bridge of the High Priest…

  Meryra’s house has already been mentioned. It was probably next to the Treasury, and as High Priest he commanded a view overlooking the Nile and would have had a private walkway access to the Great Temple. His extensive eastern gardens were watered by a large storage tank, served by water from the River. An indecipherable number of Talents (KK) are buried perhaps 4.6m down, by the sluice gate feeding the two large walled-in tanks.

  The next injunction, at the beginning of Column 7, is: Priest, dig for 9 Cubits: Twenty-two Talents in the channel of Qi… Much of the Scroll is missing here and any interpretation is guesswork. If the injunction applies to the previous location, then there may be valuables anywhere along the length of the channels feeding Meryra’s garden tanks.

  The Northern reservoir or cistern for this garden to the East of Meryra’s residence has 400 Talents (KK) somewhere within 10.2m of its perimeter.

  Apparently still in the garden of Meryra, there was an inner chamber which is adjacent to the cool room of the Summer House, buried at 6 cubits: six pitchers of silver. One of the buildings in this garden area is described in the Rock Tombs of El Amarna – Part I as being ‘of striking security’. It was built to be impregnable – a very unusual structure to find in a garden. From its description getting inside this building must have been like navigating the Maze at Hampton Court Palace.

  The only access is by the triple entrance in front, and he who passed it was immediately confronted by another and similar one. This also passed, the visitor was in an open square with thirteen almost identical doors to choose from, and only the three (two?) least promising of these enabled him to gain the innermost rooms, twenty-one in number. Moreover, each one of these only led into one of three blind corridors, flanked on one side with rooms…33

  The innermost chamber of this building must have had a large amount of silver buried 3m under its floor.

  The next instruction is to look In the empty space under the Eastern corner of the spreading platform, buried at 7 Cubits: Twenty-two Talents.

  There were two large walled-in watering tanks feeding the garden, and each had a small enclosure opposite its steps that suggest some additional purpose. These enclosures appear to have provided a table or platform, used preparatory to sliding something into the water. There is only one eastern table, which must be the one being referred to in the scroll. Buried 3.6m under it there could be 22 KK.

  Assuming the water tanks were fed in series there was an outlet pipe, or conduit, from an overflow tank, and 1.5m back from this outlet were buried 80 KK of gold or, according to Garcia Martinez, 60 KK of silver and 2 KK of gold.

  Column
8

  Not far from the Great Temple and the Royal Palace, perhaps even interconnecting with the Palace, was to be found the Treasury. On a private connecting road to the Palace running east from the Treasury there must have been a channel or drain pipe going into the building just by its entrance. Here, buried by this ‘drain pipe’, were tithe jars and scrolls and possibly silver.

  Further afield, we are in an Outer valley looking for a Circle on the Stone, or circular shaped stone. Deliberately shaped ancient circular stones are not that common a sight in Egypt. The one described must have been immediately recognizable as being unique.

  The most notable of these that comes to mind is a huge, monolithic, alabaster circular slab whose remains can be found at Abu Gurab on the West Bank of the Nile, between Giza and Saqqara (see Plate 13 (bottom)). In the centre of the ruins sits a massive circular disc surrounded by four hetep (offering) tables. The slab served as an altar at the Sun Temple of the Fifth-Dynasty King Nyussera, who lived from 2445 to 2412 BCE:34 17 cubits (8.7m) under the slab there could be 17 KK of silver and gold.

  ON INTO ISRAEL?

  John Allegro now conveys us to Israel and the Kidron gorge, but Garcia Martinez reckons we are still: In the burial mound which is at the entrance to the narrow pass of the potter. John Allegro’s clues prove not very useful. Taking the second translation, burial mound generally implies older or more modest tombs. If we assume we are still looking at the burial areas of Akhetaten, the smaller Northern Tombs become possible candidates for investigation. Beside the series of tombs that run along the hillside to the north of the City, there are a few of unspecified date within the hills.

  By a gap in the hillside and a central ravine, there is a track that leads up into the hills towards a tomb N. de G. Davies classifies as No. 6.35 To the right of this path is a burial place and there are four more ancient burial sites scattered along this part of the hillside. In front of these tombs there are traces of a small community settlement. There is evidence that within this community, living by a narrow pathway that led up into the hillside, there was an active pottery utilizing local clay materials. This site has also been identified as being in use as a pottery in late Roman times by Professor W. Petrie.36 The burial mound nearest to the street of the potters’ pass is the most likely place to dig for 3 cubits; four Talents.

  The subsequent descriptions of Column 8 are particularly intractable and vague. We are in the Shave – a plain or cultivated area that perhaps lies to the South-West of the Northern hills. In an underground cellar or passage that faces north there are sixty-seven Talents. Nearby in the irrigated part of this cultivated area there is a landmark, and there are seventy Talents buried at 11 cubits.

  The first direction could be referring to a set of isolated altars that lie southwest of the Northern hills of Akhetaten in the open plain. A dry watercourse runs out from the hills in this direction, indicating that irrigation water was available. Excavation of the altar and chapel buildings shows that they were used in the time of Akhenaten and fragments of gold leaf have been found near the Northern Altar.37 Some 600m from the Northern hills, near to the path of the watercourse, there is a brick platform that might well be the landmark of the second direction. Buried 5.6m under, or by an irrigation channel near this platform, are 70 KK of precious metal.

  Column 9

  Column 9 is again particularly obtuse. John Allegro guides us back to the First Temple at Jerusalem. Here he locates various likely places for treasures. Whilst I have already indicated that I believe some of the treasures of the Copper Scroll originated from the First Temple, the possibility that some may also have come from the Second Temple cannot be completely ruled out. Unfortunately both sites, which must have been fairly adjacent, are either inaccessible for excavation for religious reasons or have so far proved fruitless.

  However, assuming we are back at the Great Temple of Akhetaten, Garcia Martinez gives some additional clues by imputing a dovecote as being mentioned at the beginning of the paragraph. The first Hebrew word reads bsovak, and almost certainly means dovecote. We know that doves formed part of the Temple ceremonies so it is reasonable to assume that they were kept in the vicinity. However, the usual place for a dovecote would be in the upper part of a building near to the altar courtyard. The instruction to dig for 1m under seven slabs would seem, therefore, rather incongruous.

  I believe the solution lies in the representational form of many ancient Egyptian drawings, where the artist combines external images into his perspective.

  The drawings on the east wall of Huya’s tomb at El-Amarna show what appear to be pastoral activities at the base of the Temple, but the only scene that contains a defined enclosure has doves flying inside and around it. In the lower sections of the drawing all the figures are stooping, indicating that they are working in underground cellar levels of the Temple. The positioning of the framed dovecote drawing implies a device of the artist who wanted to represent it as being both under and outside the Temple. A possible conclusion is that the main storage place for the doves was in an underground passage of the Temple, but some were kept at the top of the Court of the Great Altar. In fact, a straight line connects the drawing of the doves at the bottom of the Temple to the symbol of a dove at the top of the building.38

  Figure 21: Plan of the Second Temple at Jerusalem, dating from 515 BCE. It was fully restored by Herod the great in 20 BCE.

  The most likely place, therefore, to dig for four bars of precious metal would be approximately 6.6m in from each corner of the wall surrounding the Great Altar Courtyard, along the line of the wall to a depth of 1m. But as we are talking about a subterranean passage it would be sensible to go much deeper than the floor level of the Temple. If you come across seven slabs you are there!

  In the Second Enclosure, which equates to the Courtyard of Rejoicing, in the cellar running east there are 22.5 KK at a depth of 4.1m.

  A further 22 KK are hidden at a depth of 8.2m in the passage of the Holes running south. This would seem to be the cellar running south under the laver building in the Inner Sanctuary where the drainage shaft entered.

  I have already noted how the Qumran-Essenes seemed to know the orientation and layout of the City of Akhetaten. A close analysis of the description given in the Qumran Community’s Temple Scroll will demonstrate that they also knew about the inner layout and function of the Great Temple at Akhetaten. Comparing descriptions in the Temple Scroll with reconstructed drawings from wall inscriptions at El-Amarna, it can be seen that The Great Temple had a ‘washing building’ to the south-east of the Sanctuary, where residues from sacrifices were dealt with by channelling them down a shaft into deep holes in the ground away from the Temple.39 Compare this to sections from Columns 31 and 32 of The Temple Scroll:

  You shall make a square building for the laver, to the south-east, all its sides will be 21 cubits, at 50 cubits distance from the altar…

  You shall make a channel all round the laver within the building. The channel runs from [the building of the laver] to a shaft, goes down and disappears in the middle of the earth…

  In the shaft or funnel itself were secreted silver offerings. ‘Funnel’ might also be translated as bekova or helmet, implying a location at the top of the drainage shaft. The outlet to this conduit must have led to a drainage basin and to the east of this, at a depth of some 3.6m, was buried 9 KK of metals.

  More consecrated offerings were to be found in the sepulchre that is in the North, at the mouth of the gorge of the Place of the Palms. We now appear to be back at the foothills to the north of Akhetaten, looking for another burial monument. The narrow pass appears to be the same ‘potter’s pass’ we encountered in Column 8. Reference to a Place of the Palms, at the outlet of the valley, indicates we are on lower ground, near water. This therefore may be in the area of the community that lived by this pass entrance, perhaps in the vicinity of the same burial mound indicated in Column 8.

  Four options face us for the last clue in Column 9. The key wor
ds from Garcia Martinez are dovecote and Nabata, whilst John Allegro comes up with gutter and Sennaah. Both agree that the location is a fortress or stronghold.

  Could it possibly be the Castle or Fort of Aten? This was located about 500m south of the Great Temple of Akhetaten. The second floor gutter or dovecote of this building is, of course, long gone and the chances of finding the 9 KK stored there negligible…but somewhere in close proximity?

  Column 10

  Column 10 presents its own problems. From the last six lines, through to the last few lines of Column 12, the instructions have almost certainly switched to locations in Canaan/Israel. There are pointed references to Absalom’s tomb, the Siloam conduit of Jerusalem, Zadok’s tomb, Jericho and Mount Gerizim.

  Assuming, however, that the first lines of Column 10 still refer to Egypt, we are initially looking for a cistern or irrigation structure by a great stream and a Ravine of the Deeps.

  The translation of the Hebrew ‘nahal hagadol ’ as great stream or great river has been studied in great detail by many researchers, including B. Pixner, J. Lefkovits, Jozef Milik, F. Cross, and Stephen Goranson.40 To quote Lefkovits, ‘it is a mystery to which river or wadi the “Great River” refers’. With our Egyptian perspective the ‘Great River’ can surely be none other than the River Nile – a term which was often used by the ancient Egyptians to describe it.

  One can only imagine that the Ravine of the Deeps must have been what is now a very large (and for most of the year), dry watercourse that runs south from the Northern hills through a deep ravine midway between the line of Northern Tombs at Akhetaten, alongside the Nile. In ancient times this ravine was swept by occasional torrential rains collected on the limestone hillside. Somewhere along the line of this dry watercourse is hidden the remains of an ancient irrigation waterwheel; buried at its foot lies 12 KK of treasure.

  Both Garcia Martinez and John Allegro agree that the key phrase in the next section of Column 10 is ‘Beth Keren(m)’ – the House of the Vineyard. By its water reservoir are hidden 62 KK of silver. The lower slopes of the Northern Hills of Amarna have, through the ages, sustained continuous weathering and denudation of topsoil. It is only in the well-watered, cultivated areas nearer to the Nile and to the large watercourse, which must at one time have provided good water supplies so that substantial cultivation could be sustained.