The photography portion of the San Diego Natural History Museum’s “Dead Sea Scrolls” exhibit features a Neil Folberg shot called “Village of Carmel.”
It shows a shepherd at work in the Mount Carmel region near Haifa, Israel, funneling his domesticated stock to some unknown fate as careworn, rustic structures dot the periphery. It’s meant as an illustration of research into the effects of plant grazing in order to promote more efficient uses of land.
But for Ocean Beach’s Nancy Owens Renner, developer of the landmark exhibit, it reflects a direct link between cultural and natural history, a connection between the earth’s place in time and space “and what we consider important and beautiful. If we had cameras 2,000 years ago, it could have been shot then.”
The Scrolls, Owens Renner said, provide a look at the same relationship on a deeply global scale. She ought to know “” she put in 2,000-plus hours’ development on the exhibit, which museum officials expect 400,000 visitors to see by the time it closes Dec. 31. And she insists that the consultants around her receive an equal share of the credit for tackling such a weighty philosophy and intent.
“We’re trying to illustrate,” she explained, “how the rich cultural history and complexity of this place is in large part a result of the geography.”
The Scrolls, written chiefly in Hebrew and Jesus Christ’s native Aramaic, date from 250 B.C. to about A.D. 65. They were discovered in the extreme northwest of today’s Israel between 1946 and 1956 in a series of 11 caves just outside Khirbet Qumran, a part of the Judean wilderness near the Dead Sea. The region’s maverick Essenes peoples wrote them as a record of their conduct in worship, law, commerce, war and municipal affairs.
Twenty-seven Scrolls, 10 of which have never been exhibited, were transported from Jordan and Israel for the San Diego display. They’re part of a total of 900 extant manuscripts, only about 230 of which are biblical in nature.
Owens Renner, however, suggested that the Scrolls are at once a record of history and a state of mind.
“In my thinking,” Owens Renner said, “they reflect the evolution of ideas within a context, and that context is shaped by the natural world. There was a prophecy [at the time the Scrolls were written] that a river would flow and revivify the Dead Sea and make it capable of sustaining life. That, to me, is an example of how the natural world provides us with the raw material from which we create potent symbols.”
The Scrolls, she said, were placed in natural landscapes like caves to help insulate them from variations in temperature and humidity. Those best preserved were wrapped in linen fiber, a plant material, or stored in ceramic jars made of clay. And for the most part, they were written on animal or plant skins.
“And I love thinking about what the ink was made of,” she added. “It’s probably gum arabic, which is the sap from a tree. Maybe soot or charcoal. Maybe pomegranate juice. Maybe honey. All those things are derived from nature. Either we’re so disconnected from it or we take it so much for granted that we don’t think about it “” but everything we have comes from the natural world.”
Even religious rituals. The Scrolls, after all, are religious documents, and religions are certainly influenced by the natural contexts in which people live. This exhibit, Owens Renner said, provides a bond between the intangible forces at work and the world that birthed them.
The San Diego Natural History Museum is located at 1788 El Prado in Balboa Park and is open Mondays from 1 to 5 p.m., Tuesdays through Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Fridays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Admissions range from $15 to $28 for the general public, $10 to $20 for museum members and $15 to $20 for groups. Tickets may be purchased at the museum, online at www.sdscrolls.org, or by calling (619) 255-0182.