The first part of this blog is based on a new article on the Essenes and their latrine. The extended blog contains the information that I posted in November.

Dr. Yitzhak Magen, staff officer of archaeology in the Civil Administration of the West Bank and his colleague, Yuval Peleg do not believe an Essene monastery has been excavated. They believe it was a ceramics factory. Since there were many predatory animals in the area, they do not believe the Essenes would have gone so far afield to relieve themselves. They believe the pools were used to deal with sediment rather than ablutions. They also say it was not the Essenes who buried the scrolls, but Jews who escaped from Jerusalem after the destruction of the Second Temple.
Source: The hidden latrines of the Essenes

(Originally posted 2006-11-19)
To the northwest of the Dead Sea, on the West Bank, may have been a latrine used by the Qumran community responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls. The site of this possible communal latrine fits various Biblical clues about the location and care of latrines and contains dessicated eggs from possibly human intestinal parasites. It is thought by many that the Essenes had a monastery at this location.

MSNBC's Toilet tied to tale of Dead Sea Scrolls explains that the ritual cleansing required of the community led to a high mortality rate because of two factors: burial of fecal waste meant that the sun did not have a chance to kill the bacteria and the water used for washing up was standing water refreshed only by the winter rains.

For more on the hygiene issue and its use as evidence for the presence of the Essenes at Qumran, see

• Remote latrine reconfirms the presence of Essene sect at Qumran - Ancient parasites show that cleanliness may have been next to sickliness
• How toilet habits killed off Dead Sea Scrolls sect
• Toilet evidence links Dead Sea Scrolls to sect

Thanks to Explorator 9.30 for the links.

Also see

• Josephus on the Essenes
• Dead Sea Scrolls
• Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls