Iowa State University Lecture: A Virtual Reconstruction of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Dr. Robert Cargill looks at a copy of the Great Isaiah Scroll in the Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Iowa State University has posted online the audio of my Oct 23, 2014 lecture at ISU entitled, “A Virtual Reconstruction of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Recent Advances and the Future of the Field“, along with the video of my PowerPoint. The video capture of the digital model toward the end is sketchy, but the audio and PPT slides and audio came out OK.

If you want to hear/watch the lecture, simply click the above link, right-click on the “Download Podcast” icon at the bottom of the list on the right, and save it to your computer. (The file is 111 MB total.) After it downloads, add .mp4 to the end of the file name, and then simply double-click to play or open it in QuickTime.

Many thanks to Dr. Hector Avalos for the invitation to speak. It was a beautiful evening on a beautiful campus in Ames, IA

Summary:

Robert Cargill, an assistant professor of Classics and religious studies at the University of Iowa, will discuss how recent advances in the fields of archaeology and the digital humanities have enabled scholars to create digital reconstructions of archaeological remains at Qumran, the site associated with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He uses 3D and virtual reality to introduce the audience to the ancient sites, proposes various reconstructions, and highlights the process for databasing archaeological data. Cargill was the chief architect and designer of the Qumran Visualization Project at UCLA’s Center for Digital Humanities. He has appeared as an expert on the National Geographic special, Writing the Dead Sea Scrolls, and History’s documentary series Bible Secrets Revealed. He is also the author of the recent book, Qumran through (Real) Time: A Virtual Reconstruction of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Co-sponsored by:

• ISU Atheist and Agnostic Society
• ISU Philosophy Club
• Philosophy & Religious Studies
• Committee on Lectures (funded by GSB)