ASOR BOOK AWARD SPOTLIGHT: SCRIBES AND SCROLLS AT QUMRAN
At the 2019 ASOR Annual Meeting in San Diego, Sidnie White Crawford was awarded the Frank Moore Cross Award for her book, Scribes and Scrolls at Qumran (Eerdmans). This award is presented to the author/editor of the most substantial volume(s) related to the history and/or religion of the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. Primary consideration will be given to historical, epigraphic, textual, and comparative literary studies; or to works that advance and/or evaluate new methodological approaches to the literary record(s). This work must be the result of original research published during the past two years.
Sidnie White Crawford receives the Cross Award in San Diego.
In Scribes and Scrolls at Qumran, Sidnie White Crawford, the Willa Cather Professor of Biblical Studies Emerita at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, offers an innovative and compelling theory that Qumran functioned as a scribal center and a central Essene library. Drawing from decades of research, Crawford builds her case thoroughly and meticulously, examining first scribes and libraries across the Mediterranean and the ancient Near East, including ancient Israel, and then reassessing the archaeological evidence from Qumran. The result is a synthesis of archaeology and text of remarkable breadth and depth, one that places the Qumran collection within the broader context of scribes and libraries in the ancient world. Scribes and Scrolls at Qumran is an invaluable contribution to the fields of Biblical, Ancient Near Eastern, and Qumran Studies from a leading international expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls, one that will become a standard reference for the next generation of scholars.
“I was particularly pleased and proud to receive this award, as Frank Moore Cross was my teacher and dissertation director. To him I owe my research career, and the book is dedicated to his memory.”
-Sidnie White Crawford
