The main problems, for instance, with the cartographic
documents and language are well known. They constitute of
separate map forms, sizes and objects, the differences between
observation and the visual interpretation of the maps, as well as
how the map details can be assimilated into one single database
as to formalize the geographic information.
Another difficulty that faces scholars interested in conducting
remote sensing, archaeological surveys and prospecting in the
Dead Sea area are the extremely unusual atmospheric,
climatological and topographical conditions prevailing, which
means that even today, mostly manual, time-consuming
methods will also have to be employed beyond classical remote
sensing methods. This is mainly due to the circumstances such
as the low altitude of the Dead Sea area, the mostly very high
day temperatures and the differential between night and day
temperatures, which usually disturb normal seeing conditions,
occasionally also satellite images, as explained above. The
seeing properties in the Dead Sea valley would also be quite
different from what they are in a flat landscape, which means
that calculations and evaluations would have to be followed by
empirical observations, surveys and measurements in the field.
The steep mountains, for instance, close to the settlement of
Qumran limit normal visibility.
A third major difficulty which has to do both with the
cartographical material and the overall archaeological
interpretation of Qumran is that we have, in fact, little certain
information on the description and interpretation of the
stratigraphy of the settlement, since we do not know the basis of
the recording system of the excavation and the principles that
were used. The final excavation reports of the archaeological
excavation of Qumran of the 1950s are still under preparation
since the excavator Father R. de Vaux died before finishing the
reports.
3.4. The spatial documentation
The objective of the field survey was to produce a preliminary
reproduction of the topographic development of the site and its
immediate surroundings, both in a paleo-climatological and
historical perspective, in a manner where the environmental
factors that must have prevailed at the site in antiquity would
also be better included in the archacological explanation
process. Therefore, we decided to use a computer-aided
measurement technique, a high-precision tacheometric total
station (EDM) to record and collect a set of coordinates from
relevant surfaces and features in the area that were
archaeologically meaningful.
We recorded the absolute heights and coordinates of some of
the most important scroll bearing caves (in relation to the
settlement of Qumran and the sea level), such as Cave 1 north
of the settlement, and Cave 4 below the settlement of Qumran.
The relationship of the architectural and archaeological
structures within the settlement of Qumran, on one hand, and
the relationship of the settlement of Qumran and the cemetery
located east of the settlement, on the other hand, was one of the
primary research goals. The accuracy of the coordinate points
and height points were controlled against the mapping
information on the 1: 50 000 maps of the area and other
information made available to us. What interested us in
particular was the positioning of the building structures of
Qumran and their axial directions within the settlement plan,
and how they possibly might indicate that there was a central
planning. The direction of the longitudal building elements, in
International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B5. Istanbul 2004
this case, the walls of the settlement, were measured and
determined within 0.5? accuracy.
The building surveying and documentation also used traditional
measurement techniques such as tape measures, measuring
sticks, plumb lines and a hand-held sophisticated digital
compass based on military technology. The digital compass
provided high accuracy and the taking of bearings was easy
with the gun sight in the compass. Based on this information 2D
-plans were produced of the most important structures at
Qumran. The photographic documentation of the same objects
was done analogue with a Canon F-1, 35 mm B&W and colour
prints, in different lighting conditions and repeatedly, year after
year to produce a sequence of photographs. The longest
photographic record of the same objects that we have extends to
about 40 years (the first photographs were taken in the 1950s,
next ones in 1976, and the last photographs were taken in 1996).
Some of the images were later digitalized and formed a basis for
the raw data for GIS.
4. REMOTE SENSING, FIELD
SURVEYS AND ANALYSIS
4.1. The results of the collection of data
The measuring of the azimuths of the Qumran building complex
and the tombs in the main cemetery showed, first of all, that the
northern axis of the settlement does not point to the true north
(geographic north), as often is claimed. The northern axis
follows a direction, which is 20? east of north, meaning that the
azimuth formed between the true north, and the central northern
axis is 20°. The skew east of north can be followed by
observing the long eastern wall of the main building structure
bordering to the cemetery, loci 111 and 121, 30, and the main
water installations (loci 47/49, 71, 91, 117, 118), which all have
the same azimuth. Surprisingly, the position of the tombs in the
cemetery are arranged according to the same northern axis and
the same azimuth as the Qumran settlement, i.e. they follow the
identical 20° east of north arrangement. The cemetery consists
on an average of 1100-1200 tombs. Each of the individual
tombs is aligned, with few exceptions, according to the central
northern axis of the cemetery, which is the 20° east of north
cardinal point on the horizon. There is a correspondence in the
alignments of the Qumran settlement and the cemetery, and the
relationship of the direction of the Qumran settlement the Ein
Feshka settlement follows the 20° east of north direction
(Lónnqvist and Lónnqvist, 2002). This is a most significant
discovery, as will become evident.
The second important observation was that the settlement of
Qumran had a two-axial grid system, with an almost
perpendicular E-W axis in relation to the main northern axis.
This direction or alignment is represented in the settlement plan
of Qumran by the largest single room called locus 77, which the
excavator R. de Vaux believed to be a main dining or assembly
hall. The south of east north of west orientation follows a sight
line of 106?-286?. In addition, a few arbitrarily chosen
baselines, which were mostly baths or walls, were investigated
for the alignments.
Our preliminary impression was that we could not find any clear
topographical, architectural or archaeological explanations
alone for why the Qumran settlement and the cemetery were
given meticulously the same peculiar skew and orientation,
other than it obviously must have had some very specific
meaning to the people who built and inhabited the site in the
Hellenistic and Roman periods. Therefore, we decided to
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