The Archaeological Activity of J.T. Milik During His Stay in Jerusalem (1952-1961)

Abstract

As a thirty-year-old Polish biblical scholar, J. T. Milik (1922-2006) would certainly not have expected that, alongside the study of scrolls, archaeological research would occupy his time for a decade in the École Biblique of Jerusalem. Yet by March 1952 he had already discovered the Cave of Timothy in the Qumran cliff and in September of the same year he worked with Father Roland de Vaux in Cave 4 and discovered Cave 5. He then took part in the second, third, forth and fifth expeditions at Khirbet Qumran and at ‘Ain Feshkha and undertook small excavations with Frank M. Cross in the heart of the Judean Desert. He also cooperated with Father Bellarmino Bagatti at Dominus Flevit in Jerusalem and personally discovered several Second Temple tombs with ossuaries close to Jerusalem. Furthermore, in cooperation with Father Jean Starcky, he found many hundreds of Nabataean inscriptions over the course of two expeditions. He certainly was not only a genius epigrapher, brilliant philologist and the co-founder of Qumranology, but also, in the best sense of the word, a biblical archaeologist.

Keywords

• J.T. Milik
• R. de Vaux
• F.M. Cross
• Khirbet Qumran
• Judean Desert
• Qumran caves