Obviously They Didn't Have Newspapers

Here's the deal. These two researchers are scrounging around in the desert looking for the originator of the Dead Sea Scrolls. And not only that, once they find who originated the scrolls then they want to understand how they lived and died.

So these two guys, Jimmy and Joey, run across this ancient crapper.... uno, toilet... bathroom (see my blog about Mike Rowe and microgy... it all ties in). Jimmy and Joey call it a communal latrine from Qumran. Qumran, apparently, is a ancient settlement back when Jesus was roaming Terra Firma with a lot of caves and, interestingly enough, where the 2,000 year old scrolls were found.

I just don't see the big deal here. When a guys on the crapper he needs to have something to read.... right. OK, so they didn't have books or newspapers back then so these folks read the scrolls. Since they probably didn't have a whole bunch of 'em they probably all got together once a week or so and traded scrolls that they wrote.... kinda like a communal book club.

Luckily someone found these scrolls or we would all be Hindu's or whatever. Anyway, Jimmy and Joey think the folks that lived near this latrine were a "hard-core Jewish sect" know as the Essenes. Apparently these Essenes had... well, long driveways and very small garages because they lived too close to this latrine and it made them very ill. Maybe if they lived a cleaner life there would have been more scrolls. I guess we may never know.

Wonder what they used for paper....