Here the ‘North City’ suburb of Akhetaten nestled between the curve of the River and the beginnings of the meandering slopes of the Northern Hills. On the gentler slopes at the foot of the Northern Hills, olive trees could have been sustained and vines cultivated on the facing plain. Perhaps the brick platform, located along the line of the watercourse in this vineyard region, was the structure that supported the heavy stone slab measuring 2 cubits across needed to press the precious oils from the olives. In one of the large storage vats of this agricultural area 300 KK of gold and some twenty libation vessels were secreted.
ON INTO CANAAN?
The Copper Scroll text now appears to move irrevocably into Canaan, with a reference to ‘Absalom’s memorial’. One would therefore expect some (if only a cryptic) marker to that effect. Untidy as our scribe (or scribes) was, he never placed a letter completely out of alignment – except at this item where a Hebrew ‘kaff’ appears at the side of the Column – the same sound that starts the Hebrew word for Canaan. This is presumably the scribe’s ‘marker’ that indicates that we have moved to Canaan. The treasures we are looking for are, therefore, either treasures that have been dug up and brought from Egypt or, more likely, treasures hidden at the time of the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE.
There are three possible candidates for Absalom’s Monument. One is a structure built in the first century BCE, in the Valley of Kidron, for King Alexander Jannaeus – a descendant of the House of Absalom. The second is the tomb of Absalom, the third son of King David, and the last is the resting place of a patriot rebel leader named Absalom, who fought the Romans at the beginning of the Jewish uprising. Both of our last two candidates died in battle and there are no known monuments to them or their deaths.
The first location is the most northerly of the Hellenistic tombs to the east of the Kidron Valley, which is associated with a marble column that Josephus mentions as being ‘two stades’ distant from Jerusalem. We are told by the Copper Scroll to dig on the west side for 12 Cubits (6.2m). There is indeed an opening on the western side of the Monument. The opening leads to an underground cistern that is almost exactly 6.2m deep, giving credence to this as the location mentioned in the Scroll for 80 KK of treasure. No trace of the treasure has so far been found at this site.
Without the excess ‘Kaff’, the next line then begins ‘bivot’ or In the ducts of the water system at Siloam. The word Siloam comes from the Hebrew ‘Shiloah’ or ‘Pool’. Around 700 BCE the forward-thinking King Hezekiah, of Judah, had a tunnel cut through under Jerusalem to tap the waters of the Gihon Spring, in the event of a siege. At the centre of the duct there is an inscription in Hebrew commemorating the completion of the construction. It is one of the oldest known recordings of Hebrew writing (see Chapter 14) and can today be seen in the Istanbul Museum. Under the water outlet from the storage tank there were hidden 17 KK, and in the four corner inner buttresses of the pool, tithe vessels and figured coins, according to John Allegro.41
Column 11
The next item, in Column 11, identifies a location of tithes: under the corner of the southern portico at the tomb of Zadok, under the pillar of the covered hall: vessels of offering of resin and offering of senna, according to Geza Vermes. Zadok was the High Priest at the time of King Solomon and King David, c.1000 BCE. The whereabouts of his tomb is unknown. However, if the use of the name ‘Zadok’ is merely generic then there are two other likely possibilities.
As has been discussed previously, ‘Zadok’ is also the name used for the title of High Priest in Egypt. If, therefore, we are back in Egypt, at Akhetaten, the High Priest’s tomb would be that of Meryra, located in the Northern Hills of El-Amarna. Meryra’s tomb is altogether one of the most substantial and artistic tombs of all, except for those of the royals. Sure enough, the tomb has a southern entrance, and we are told by John Allegro to look below the Portico’s Southern corner, in the Tomb of Zadok, under the platform of the exedra [vestibule]. The portico or porch entrance to the tomb leads into a spacious vestibule, which had two large ornately inscribed columns (there were probably originally four). Underneath the column of the exedra we are told will be found tithe vessels. Not only does the exedra have columns, as described, but one of them is towards the southern corner of the room. The description fits so precisely that Meryra’s Tomb becomes a prime candidate for re-excavation. It is the only tomb at Amarna that contains a vestibule, and its fronting garden is also a unique feature, rarely seen elsewhere in Egypt.
Our second locational possibility – that Zadok’s Tomb is that of the High Priest at the time of Solomon and David – led John Allegro to home in on the double-columned arcade running along the eastern side of the Temple. However, the religious restrictions preventing tombs inside the city walls, pushed his search outside to the eastern side of the Kidron Valley, where precise orienteering becomes tenuous and he gave up the search.
The next proposition: opposite Zadok’s garden, under the large slab which covers the water outlet also presents insurmountable difficulties in identifying the garden of the High Priest near Jerusalem. Nor does the added descriptive restraint, that the garden is cut into the cliff facing west, help much in the search.
However, lo and behold, when we return to Egypt we find that Meryra’s tomb does have a walled garden outside its entrance, which is cut deep into the cliffs. A tomb with a frontal garden is in itself quite unique. Because of the orientation at this curve of the hillside the garden faces roughly west. As N. de G. Davies relates:
The cutting back of the rock slope, in order to gain the elevation for the facade, has formed a level court more than twenty feet wide in front of the tomb, and this was further marked off by leaving a low enclosing wall of rock on the outer side, with a broad gap in the centre for entrance. The court has thus the appearance of the walled-in garden before a modern double-fronted house.42
The precise location of the consecrated offerings, in relation to Zadok’s garden, is not easily ascertained from the translation. Above the tomb a cutting of rock frontage was begun and abandoned, perhaps as it involved too ambitious a task…in the concession at the tip of the rock might be a reference to the upper limit of jutting-out rock in this area allocated for Meryra’s tomb. Then again: under the large slab which covers the water outlet or under the great sealing stone that is in its bottom appear to refer directly to the garden and the water drainage channel that must have nurtured it. Closer investigation of Meryra’s tomb garden, which measures 30m x 10m (the same proportions as the Great Temple), would seem highly appropriate.
John Allegro’s version of the next item, points to 40 KK In the grave which is under the paving stones. Whether this means under the paving stones of the garden, or under Meryra’s actual grave, or in another grave that is under the garden, is unclear. All three possibilities warrant investigation.
The next passage appears to read: In the grave of the sons of Ha’amata of Jeri-cho(?)…there are vessels of myrtle(?) there, and of the tithe of pine(?) [resin].43 The translation of ‘Jericho’ by Garcia Martinez is none too certain; the Hebrew looks more like ‘orho’ or a word related to ‘luna’. John Allegro has it as:…of the common people…; Geza Vermes doesn’t really know but plumps for the Sons of… (?) the Yerahite. My own interpretation is as follows.
The area of Akhetaten takes its modern name of El-Amarna from a nomadic Arab clan ‘Beni Amran’, who settled in an area straddling both sides of the Nile River. (Is it merely a strange coincidence that the Biblical name of Moses’ father was Amram?!)
A traditional name for one of the Amran tribe’s villages was Hawata.44 Whether this traditional name is an echo from the dim and distant past of a village of ‘Ha’awata’ and one of the officials was named ‘orho’ are conjectorial. The location of Hawata is today marked by a boundary inscription, known as Stela J, in the hills to the south of El-Amarna, high on the north side of a ravine. Excavation of tombs in the area of modern day Hawata, especially near Stela J, might yield the tithe
vessels we are seeking.
The Boundaries of Akhetaten
The name ‘Akhetaten’ meant ‘Horizon of Aten’, and the complete boundaries of the City were delineated by huge monolithic tablets, or stelae carved from cliff faces. This procedure was unique to Akhetaten and not found elsewhere in Egypt. The fourteen boundary stelae encompassed what was, for Akhenaten, the holy place wherein his God’s purposes could be enacted. Inside the boundary was holy ground, outside was not.
Akhenaten’s affiliation to the area bounded by the stelae was reiterated on the stelae themselves and other monuments, where he makes it clear no other place on earth was as spiritually important. If he, or any of his family, were to die outside the holy enclosure, it was to Akhetaten that their bodies must be returned.
The fourteen stelae, some as high as twenty-six feet, were cut into the cliff faces. The cliffs formed a natural boundary to the east and west of the district of Akhetaten and the stelae marked the ‘Horizon of Aten’ within its northern and southern limits. In all, the area encompassed was about 14.4km x 25.5km. Inscriptions on the stelae generally relate to the worship of Aten:
…his is my testimony, forever, and this is my witness forever, this landmark…I have made Akhetaten for my father as a dwelling for…I have demarked.
Within this ‘special’ area religious activities could be performed that were not acceptable outside the area.
Whilst we are talking about stelae we might take a look at a Jewish ‘chok’ – a ritual that has no defined instruction in the Bible. (Another is the prohibition of wearing wool and linen together.) This particular tradition relates to the possibility of creating a local ‘holy enclosure’ within which acts normally forbidden on the Sabbath can safely be performed – like carrying a key or umbrella, or pushing a wheelchair. The boundaries of this ‘eruv’ or area, can be defined by natural geographical features, sometimes supplemented by man-made demarcations.
There is no coherent explanation as to why an ‘eruv’ can be created, or its precedent. In the light of my theories and knowledge of the layout of the City of Akhetaten, we have a possible explanation related to the stelae.
I believe this idea of boundaries marking a holy area, centred on the Great Temple, is the template for the modern Jewish idea of an ‘eruv’ centred on a synagogue. They exist in Toronto, Phoenix, Memphis, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Providence, Miami, Washington DC, Johannesburg, Melbourne, Gibraltar, Antwerp, Strasbourg and other cities around the world, and one has been sanctioned for north-west London.
MOUNT GERIZIM AND THE FINAL DESTINATIONS
We now enter the last lap of our journey, in the second half of Column 11. Here, as John Allegro points out, there is a strange upper case Greek letter ‘gamma’, a ‘Γ’, after the first word of the next item, which he concludes is an erroneous mark. However it might well be that it is not erroneous and instead marks the beginning of the last tranche of descriptions of locations in the region of Mount Gerizim, which is clearly identified in the final passages of the Copper Scroll. We are in Israel, near modern day Nablus, which sits in a valley between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal some 56km north of Jerusalem.
It was here, when they first entered Canaan in c.1200 BCE, that the Children of Israel assembled for a blessing of all those who observed the laws that Moses had brought to them from God. What more appropriate place for the designated custodians of those laws to hide some of the treasures they brought out of Egypt? This was a place of enormous spiritual significance for the Hebrew people.
From the fourth to the second centuries BCE, Mount Gerizim was the traditional place of worship of the Samaritans, who established a rival Temple to that in Jerusalem. An altar was originally erected on Mount Gerizim, near Shechem (today’s Nablus), at the beginning of the Second Temple period (538–515 BCE), and the rival Temple was built by Sanballat, the Samaritan leader, in the fourth century BCE. The Samaritan sanctuary was destroyed by the Priest-King John Hyrcanus in the early part of the second century, and tradition relates that treasure was hidden nearby. It is still a place of gathering for the few remaining Samaritans in the world today, who celebrate Passover on the Mountain with a midnight vigil and the sacrifice of a lamb.
Such are the similarities between the Samaritans and the Qumran-Essenes that one might postulate a sympathetic connection between the two sects. The Samaritans (or ‘Shamerim’ as they were originally known) also styled themselves ‘keepers of the Law’, rejected the conventional Temple customs and had many parallel beliefs to those of the Qumran-Essenes. In the Dead Sea Scrolls that refer to the Book of Joshua,45 the Qumran-Essenes relate the implementation of the law in Deuteronomy 27:5–8 that commanded the building of an altar of unhewn stones on Mount Ebal, and the inscription of a copy of the Torah of Moses upon it. A ceremony (Deuteronomy 27:11–13) is described where the people are arrayed on both sides of the valley of Shechem, one half facing Mount Gerizim and the other half facing Mount Ebal. The ceremony involves the reading of blessings and curses to the assembled tribes. The validation of a holy site, other than at Shilo or Jerusalem, appears to predate this Deuteronomic law that there should only be two holy places.
Mount Gerizim is cited in Column 12 as a place where a chest with sixty Talents of silver will be found. The clues are sparse: underneath the staircase of the upper [pit] tunnel.
The area on Mount Gerizim held sacred by the Samaritans was enclosed by a wall and covered the entire summit of the mountain. Worshippers ascended to it from the City’s western quarter by a broad staircase some 10m wide. The line of the Temple wall is well-defined and some 120m still remains. Excavations to date have revealed the nucleus of an ancient settlement dating back to the fourth century BCE, but little detail of the Temple. Somewhere on the huge area at the top of the mountain there are treasures – perhaps, near the top of the broad staircase, there is the beginning of a tunnel that ran under the Temple.
The four previous items of location, prefixed by the Greek ‘gamma’ could also relate to the area around Mount Gerizim.
In the first instance we are looking for either the house of Esdatain or a house of two pools. Two of the buildings in the settlement at Mount Gerizim conform to the requirement of having a cistern at the entrance to the smallest water basin, and the tithes of aloes and white pine may, at one time, have been amongst the remnants of coins, pottery, basalt and metal vessels found here.46
Very close by at the West entrance of the sepulchre room, there is a platform for the stove above…900 talents of silver. Could this have been the Samaritan sacrificial oven found in a complex building in the northern quarter of the city? If it was, 900 KK of silver and a considerable amount of gold are nearby.
Column 12
A further 60 KK are to be found at the western entrance to a burial monument under a black stone or blocking stone. Close by under the sill of the tomb chamber or at its side underneath the threshold of the burial chamber, there are 42 KK.
Also in the final Column: In the mouth of the Spring at Beth-Sham: silver vessels and gold vessels for the tithes; in total 600 Talents. John Allegro translates ‘Beth-Sham’ as ‘the Temple’ and we can take this phrase as meaning ‘House of the Shom-erim’ the original name for the Samaritans.
For a mountain reaching to a height of 895m there would inevitably be a water source near the top for the beginnings of a stream that descends into the valley. At the original source of this stream the treasures are to be found.
The penultimate location of the Copper Scroll is given by Garcia Martinez as: In the large conduit of the burial-chamber up to Beth-Hakuk. This latter word could easily be read from the text as ‘Habukah’ and, as such, makes much more sense. Habakkuk was a Prophet of the Old Testament, believed to have lived at the time of the Chaldean siege of Nineveh, around 612 BCE. He was of particular interest to the Qumran-Essenes.
The Dead Sea Scroll ‘Habakkuk’ document is a ‘Pesher’, or commentary-cum-interpretation of prophecies, sometimes explaining hidden meanings of
the Prophet Habakkuk. The ‘Pesher’ has two themes: the threat of the ‘Kittim’ – foreigners who will come and threaten Judea; and the ‘Wicked Priest’ (of Jerusalem) who threatens the ‘Righteous Priest’. There have been many attempts to identify these characters. One possibility is that they were, respectively, the Samaritan High Priest at the time of the destruction of the Temple at Gerizim by the ‘Wicked Priest’ King Hyrcarnus. Another possibility is that the ‘Righteous Priest’ was Sanballat, the Samaritan leader who built the Temple at Gerizim.
Unfortunately the whereabouts of the tombs of both these ‘Righteous’ contenders are unknown, as is the burial place of the Prophet Habakkuk. All that can be concluded is that somewhere in the region of Mount Gerizim, or the tomb of Habakkuk, there is a burial chamber that contains 72 KK and twenty Minahs of treasure.
Just as Alice predicted, having commenced at the end of the Copper Scroll, we have finally finished just before the end.
What then are the chances of finding some of the Copper Scroll’s hidden treasures that have not yet been found? After nearly 3,500 years, for much of the remaining treasure, not too good. The most fruitful places to search may well be those in Egypt, as the locations in Israel are less well-defined and, as has already been said, it is not permissible to excavate burial sites or many of the holy places that might yield further clues.
The excavations that need to be carried out to find the remaining treasures will have to be done by professional archaeologists. Recovery will not be a simple matter, given the current political situation in the Middle East, and I don’t recommend rushing off with bucket and spade as part of a transitory tourist excursion! All that is still to be found will automatically become the property of the country from where it is excavated anyway. Some may already have been lost to grave robbers and thieves. Some will not be easy to dig up, as it is located within sites sacred to both Jews and Muslims, such as at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Finally, some may still be languishing unrecognized in private collections.
The Mystery of the Copper Scroll of Qumran Page 24
