Józef Tadeusz Milik jako archeolog. Zapomniany aspekt działalności współtwórcy qumranologii

Abstract

Starting with 1952 J. T. Milik took part in a lot of field research in Palestine, Jordan and Syria. As a representative of the Jerusalem École Biblique he was one of the leaders of small archaeological teams surveying the Qumran area in March 1952. He discovered the so-called Timothy Cave, visited Cave 2 and Cave 3. He was the first epigrapher to see the Copper Scroll immediately after its discovery (he published it in 1962). In September 1952 he accompanied Father Roland de Vaux in digging Cave 4 and about 1000 fragments of manuscripts passed through his hands. He discovered Cave 5 and participated in discovery of Cave 6. Milik took part in the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th seasons of excavations at Khirbet Qumran (1953-1956) and at Ain Feshkha in 1958. He was responsible for supervising some sectors of the Qumran dig, for the reconstruction of pots, sorting of sherds, entering of objects in the catalogue. He also penetrated the Qumran aqueduct and found a parallel one at Hyrcania. In 1954 he became interested in the earliest phase of the Qumran settlement and (with F.M. Cross) surveyed and identified three Iron age settlements in the valley of Buqe‘ia, which in effect made it possible to identify Qumran with Ir ham-Melah (City of Salt) of Uzziah’s time. Despite the fact that Milik was invited to Jerusalem to publish the Dead Sea Scrolls he soon extended his field of interest in other directions: 1/ publication of ossuaries from Dominus Flevit, in connection with which he himself dug in three places in the area of Silwan in the valley of Cedron (1958-1960); 2/ preparation of a repertory of monasteries and sanctuaries of Jerusalem and its neighbourhood. He surveyed all the sites and described eighty sanctuaries from the Jerusalem area alone. In March and July 1955 and in 1974 Milik took part in Father Jean Starcky’s survey expeditions to Nabataea on behalf of the Paris Academy of Inscriptions and Literature. They discovered 974 new Nabataean texts, 48 in Greek, 11 in Latin and 6 in Thamudic. Milik kept working on the inscriptions till the end of his life in 2006. For historians Milik will remain as the Nabataean epigrapher par excellence. To sum-up: even if Milik was first of all a genius epigrapher and publisher of the scrolls, he certainly can also be called a brilliant philologist and a biblical archaeologist who combined surface research, archaeological digging and competent knowledge of Biblical texts in a unique way.