Site of Qumran with the Dead Sea in the distance.
Photo © David E. Graves

Qumran (Khirbet) Bibliography

INDEX of Archaeological Sites

Qumran

For The Excavation of Cave 12 in 2017 (Loc. 53) see LINK National Geographic's Front cover Dec 2018.

On Qumran remember that this excavation is NOT the Dead Sea Scrolls and vice versa. While the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered in caves around the area where Qumran is located, these are two different issues.
There are various theories of the use of the site. Was it an Essene monastery, pottery manufacturing site (Magen and Peleg), Roman fortification, or some other use? What connection, if any, is there between John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Qumran community?
The site of Qumran has much more to offer than the important discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls nearby, as there is much about the site archaeologically that is often overlooked. As you can see there is a lot of information available so pick your sources carefully and wisely. Choose a good encyclopedia, journal articles, and books that specialize in the subject. This will give you a cross section of material.
Remember to provide "the historical background of the site (including history of previous archaeological excavations, if any), objectives of the current excavation, progress at the site, and significance of discoveries to biblical study."

Qumran Community:

The list of abbreviations can be found here. LINK

Atkinson, Kenneth, and Jodi Magness. “Josephus's Essenes and the Qumran community.” Journal of Biblical Literature 129, no. 2 (2010): 317–342. ProQuest
Bar–Adon, P. “The Hasmonean Fortresses and the Status of Khirbet Qumran.” Eretz Israel 15 (1981): 349–52.
Broshi, Magen and Eshel, Hanan, “Excavations at Qumran, Summer of 2001.” Israel Exploration Journal 53, no. 1 (2003): 61–73. JSTOR
Claussen, Carsten. “John, Qumran, and the question of sectarianism.” Perspectives in Religious Studies 37, no. 4 (2010): 421–440.
Crawford, Sidnie White. “Scribe Links Qumran and Masada.” Biblical Archaeology Review 38:06 (Nov/Dec 2012): n.p.. LINK
Cross Jr., Frank Moore. “The Contribution of the Qumran Discoveries to the Study of the Biblical Text.” Israel Exploration Journal 16 no. 2 (1966): 81–95. JSTOR
Cross, Frank Moore. “The Dead Sea Scrolls and the People Who Wrote Them,” Biblical Archaeology Review 3:1 (1977): 1, 23-32, 51. LINK
Cargill, Robert R. “The State of Archaeological Debate at Qumran.” Currents in Biblical Research 10, no. 1 (2011): 1–18.
Cargill, Robert R. “The Fortress at Qumran: A History of Interpretation.” The Bible and Interpretation, 2009. LINK
Cook, Edward M. “What Was Qumran? A Ritual Purification Center,” Biblical Archaeology Review 22, no. 06, Nov-Dec 1996: 39, 48-51, 73-75.
Davies, P. R. “Khirbet Qumran Revisited.” Pp. 126 –42 in Scripture and Other Artifacts: Essays on the Bible and Archaeology in Honor of Philip J. King. Edited by M. D. Coogan, J. C. Exum, and L. E. Stager. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1994.
Elledge, C. D., and Olivia Yeo. “Rethinking the 'Qumran Community’: Recent Approaches.” ASOR Blog, December 13, 2013. LINK .
Graves, David E. “Facts from Archaeology: Scribes’ Toolbox.” Key Themes of the Old Testament: A Survey of Major Theological Themes (Moncton, N.B.: Electronic Christian Media, 2013), 125. Look Inside
Graves, David E. “Facts from Archaeology: Qumran and the Essenes.” Key Themes of the Old Testament: A Survey of Major Theological Themes (Moncton, N.B.: Electronic Christian Media, 2013), 48–50. Look Inside
Hirschfeld, Y. “The Architectural Context of Qumran.” "Pp. 673–83 in The Dead Sea Scrolls Fifty Years after Their Discovery: Proceedings of the Jerusalem Congress Held July 10–15, Edited by L. H. Schiffman, E. Tov, and J. C. Van der Kam. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2000.
Hirschfeld, Y. Qumran in Context: Reassessing the Archaeological Evidence. Peabody: Hendrickson, 2004.
Kelso, James L. “The Archaeology of Qumran,” Journal of Biblical Literature 74, No. 3 (September, 1955): 141–146. JSTOR
Magen, Yitzhak and Yuval Peleg, “Back to Qumran: Ten Years of Excavation and Research, 1993–2004,” Qumran. The Site of the Dead Sea Scroll: Archaeological Interpretations and Debates; Proceedings of a Conference held at Boston University, November 17–19, 2002. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 57. Edited by Galor, Katharina, Jean–baptiste Humbert, and Jorgen Zangenberg. Leiden: Brill Academic, 2006, 55–113.
Magen, Yitzhak and Yuval Peleg. The Qumran Excavations 1993–2004: Preliminary Report. Judea and Samaria Publications 6. Jerusalem: Civil Administration for Judea and Samaria, 2007.
Magness, Jodi. The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002. Look Inside
Magness, Jodi. Review of “Yizhar Hirschfeld, Qumran in Context.” Review of Biblical Literature 8, 2005. LINK
Magness, Jodi. “What Was Qumran? Not a Country Villa,” Biblical Archaeology Review 22, no. 06, Nov-Dec 1996, 38-47, 72-73.
Price, Randall and Gutfeld, Oren. “Qumran Plateau Israel Archaeological Digs." World of the Bible Ministries. LINK.
Price, Randall. “New Discoveries at Qumran.” World of the Bible: News and Views Vol.6 No.3 (Fall 2004), 1–3. LINK
Politis, Konstantinos D. “The Discovery and Excavation of the Khirbet Qazone Cemetery and Its Significance Relative to Qumran," Qumran. The Site of the Dead Sea Scroll: Archaeological Interpretations and Debates; Proceedings of a Conference held at Boston University, November 17–19, 2002. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 57. Edited by Galor, Katharina, Jean–baptiste Humbert, and Jogen Zangenberg. Leiden: Brill Academic, 2006, 213–19.
Reed, William, “The Qumran Caves Expedition of March, 1952.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 135 (1954): 8–13. JSTOR
Taylor, J. E. “Khirbet Qumran in the Nineteenth Century and the Name of the Site.” Palestine Exploration Quarterly 134 no. 2 (2002): 144–64.
Shanks, Hershel. “The Qumran Settlement—Monastery, Villa or Fortress?” Biblical Archaeology Review 19, no. 03 (May-Jun 1993): 62-65. LINK
Shanks, Hershel. “The Enigma of Qumran: Four Archaeologists Assess the Site,” Biblical Archaeology Review 24, no. 01 (Jan-Feb 1998): 24-37. LINK
World of the Bible LINK

Dead Sea Scrolls:

Bibliography Center for Online Judaic Studies
Flint, Peter W., and James C. VanderKam, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls After Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment. Vol. 2. Leiden: Brill, 1999. DJVU File
Golb, Norman. "Who Hid the Dead Sea Scrolls?” The Biblical Archaeologist 48, no. 2 (1985): 68–82. JSTOR
Golb, Norman. “Khirbet Qumran and the Manuscripts of the Judean Wilderness: Observations on the logic of their Investigation.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 49 (1990): 103–114.
Graves, David E. “Dead Sea Scrolls.” Key Themes of the Old Testament: A Survey of Major Theological Themes (Moncton, N.B.: Electronic Christian Media, 2013), 45–50. Look Inside
Lim, Timothy H., and John J. Collins, eds. The Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Reprint edition. Oxford Handbooks. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Many good chapters by leading experts well worth looking at this. Available as Look inside Amazon and Google books.
Mowry, Lucetta, “The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Background for the Gospel of John.” The Biblical Archaeologist 17, no. 4 (1954): 77–97. JSTOR
Skehan, Patrick W. “The Biblical Scrolls from Qumran and the Text of the Old Testament.” The Biblical Archaeologist 28, No. 3 (Sep., 1965): 87–100. JSTOR
Shanks, Hershel. The Mystery and Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: Random House, 2012. Look Inside and Introduction as PDF
Shanks, Hershel. “The Dead Sea Scrolls and the People Who Wrote Them.” Biblical Archaeology Review 03:01 (March 1977): n.p. LOOKUP
VanderKam, James C. and Peter W. Flint, The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance for Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity. San Francisco: Harper, 2002.
Vaux, Roland de. Archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Schweich Lectures of the British Academy, 1959. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973. PDF
Wiener, Noah. “The 'Original' Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Can the Scrolls help Expose the Original Bible Language within the Mesoretic Text and Septuagint?” Bible History Daily: Biblical Archaeology Society, June 27, 2014. LINK

For The Excavation of Cave 12 in 2017 (Loc. 53) see LINK

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias:

The list of abbreviations can be found here. LINK

Broshi, Magen. “Qumran, Khirbet and `Ein Feshkha.” P. 1241 in New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1993.
Davies, P. R. “Qumran, Khirbet and `Ein Feshkha.” Pp. 1253–41 in New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1993.
Freedman, David Noel, Gary A. Herion, David F. Graf, and John David Pleins, eds. “Qumran, Khirbet (M.R. 193127).” The Anchor Bible Dictionary. 6 vols. ed. David Noel Freedman. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
Murphy O’Connor, Jerome and Julia M. O’Brien, “Wadi Murabbaat (M.R. 110185),” The Anchor Bible Dictionary. 6 vols. ed. David Noel Freedman. New York: Doubleday, 1992. LINK
Magness, Jodi. “Qumran.” In The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism, edited by John J. Collins and Daniel C. Harlow, 1126–31. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2010.
Mitchell, T. C. “Qumran.” in Vol. 4 of Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vols. 1–5. Revised, Full–Color ed. Tenney, Merrill C., and Moisés Silva, eds. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009. LINK
Negev, Avraham, and Shimon Gibson, eds. “Qumran (Khirbet).” page 420–423 in Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land. New rev., and updated. 1 vols. New York: Continuum International, 2001.
Pfeiffer, Charles F., ed. “Qumran.” Pages 470–71 in Wycliffe Dictionary of Biblical Archaeology. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2000.
Trafton, Joseph L. “Dead Sea Scrolls.” Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Edited by Walter A. Elwell. ed. 2nd ed. Baker Reference Library. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1996. LINK