The Preparation of Leather and Parchment by the Dead Sea Scrolls Community

IN THIS PAPER we shall attempt to reconstruct the leather and parchment technology of the people who owned the Dead Sea scrolls and to relate this to their beliefs and practices. This study grew from a research project in the Department of Leather Industries, The University of Leeds, the aim of which was to clarify the nature, origin, techniques of manufacture, and the age of a number of blank scroll fragments kindly provided by the Jordanian Department of Antiquities. The investigations at Leeds were both historical and experimental; the latter, to be published in detail elsewhere, will be referred to here only when they are of direct relevance.