BARlines

New York Times Inaccurately Reports on Projected Edition of Dead Sea Scrolls

On July 31, 1985, the New York Times reported that a projected new edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls will include “all the major new documents discovered since 1947.” According to James H. Charlesworth of the Princeton Theological Seminary, who will serve as editor of the new three-volume set, the Times report is inaccurate; the new edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls will not include documents that are still unpublished. The new set will contain new transcriptions and translations of previously published Dead Sea Scrolls.

The project is estimated to be completed in 1991. More than a dozen translators will participate in the project.

The Sale of Artifacts by Archaeologists—An Idea Whose Time Has Come

In the January/February 1985 BAR, we published a radical proposal that archaeologists should sell common ancient Near eastern artifacts to support excavations and to decrease the market for such artifacts from illegal excavations (“BARview: A Radical Proposal: Archaeologists Should Sell Ancient Artifacts,” BAR 11:01).