Solomon H. Steckoll Explained

Solomon H. Steckoll was a South African^[1] journalist with an interest in ancient Jewish matters. He carried out excavations in the Qumran cemetery and later wrote books about the Jerusalem temple and the gates of Jerusalem.

In 1966 Steckoll obtained permission from the Jordanian Antiquities Department to investigate the Qumran cemetery, opening two of the tombs and recovering two male skeletons.^[2] In 1967 he opened a further eight tombs, recovering five male and three female skeletons.

During his investigations Steckoll also found an inkwell at Qumran.

When Israel took control of the West Bank, Steckoll lost rights to excavate in the cemetery. Roland de Vaux explains it somewhat bitterly, "The authorities of the Israeli occupation have forbidden this Sherlock Holmes of archaeology to continue his researches at Qumran."^[3]

Books by Steckoll

• The gates of Jerusalem (New York: Praeger, 1968; London: Allen & Unwin, 1968)
• The Temple Mount: an illustrated history of Mount Moriah in Jerusalem (London, Tom Stacey Ltd, 1972)
• The Alderney Death Camp (London: Granada Publishing Limited 1982)

References

• de Vaux, Roland, Archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973). English translation from the French.
• Steckoll, Solomon H., "Marginal Notes on Qumran", Revue de Qumran 7 (1969) 33–40.
• Steckoll, Solomon H., "Preliminary Excavation Report in the Qumran Cemetery", Revue de Qumran 6 (1968) 323–344.
• Haas, N., and Nathan, H., "Anthropological Survey on the Human Skeletal Remains from Qumran", Revue de Qumran 6 (1968) 345–352.

Unseen ^[4]

• Steckoll, Solomon H., "An Inkwell from Qumran", Mada´ 13 (1969) 260–261. [Hebrew]
• Steckoll, Solomon H., "Investigation of the Inks Used in Writing the Dead Sea Scrolls", Nature 220 (1968) 91–92.

Notes and References

1. News: Clipped from the Indianapolis Star. The Indianapolis Star. December 21, 1965. 22.
2. Steckoll 1969, p. 36.
3. de Vaux 1973, p. 48.
4. Cited in Murphy, Catherine M., Wealth in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Qumran Community, (Leiden: Brill 2002) p. 300 fn 27.