August 26, 2009

The College of Arts and Humanities at California State University, Fresno is sponsoring a free lecture at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 3 by anthropologist and scholar Dr. Jodi Magness on archeological remains at Qumran and their relationship to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The lecture will be presented at the Leon S. and Pete P. Peters Education Center within the Student Recreation Center, just west of the Save Mart Center.

Her appearance is part of the Phebe McClatchy Conley Lecture series. Conley was a benefactor of Fresno State and the university’s Art Building is named in her memory.

Magness is the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina. Her writings include “The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine” and “The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls.”

Qumran came into international prominence in the late 1940s when excavations of the area near the Dead Sea unearthed ancient manuscripts in caves that came to be called the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Magness has participated in 20 excavations in Israel and Greece, including the area associated with the Roman siege of Masada, Khirbet Yattir (a Christian settlement dating from Byzantine times) and a fort from the late Roman occupation of what now is Israel.