Lecture on the Archaeology of Qumran

The Baptist Press News reports the following:

Dead Sea Scrolls still kindle archaeological debate, Ortiz says
Apr 13, 2005
By Michael McCormack

MOBILE, Ala. (BP)--The 1948 discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls proved to be the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century. But more than 50 years after their discovery, many questions remain as to who wrote them and who actually lived at the Dead Sea community of Qumran where they were discovered.

Steven Ortiz, associate professor of biblical archaeology and director of the Center for Archaeological Research at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, addressed some of these questions, as part of the Gulf Coast Exploreum’s Dead Sea Scrolls lecture series in Mobile, Ala ...

Primarily he surveys the Essene hypothesis, held by Magness and many others, and the "manor house" hypothesis recently defended by Hirschfeld. He also discusses the primitive archaeological techniques available to De Vaux when he excavated Qumran.