Qumran cemetery
The Qumran cemetery is in eastern Qumran in the West Bank, part of Palestinian area which is under Israeli occupation. It is a large area leading to a descent from which four finger-like ridges point eastward. On these ridges more tombs are located. The current estimate of tombs in the cemetery is over 1100. The largest section, that on the plateau proper, has two east-west paths which divide it into three parts. There are also two small cemeteries near Qumran, one ten minutes' walk north of the main cemetery and one to the south, on the  other side of Wadi Qumran. Excavation. The cemetery at the Qumran site is said to be a unique cemetery because how all of the graves differ from each other in one way or another. The characteristics of some graves point towards one tradition, while other characteristics point towards another. This makes it very difficult to determine to whom all the skeletons belong. There are up to 1,200 graves, found throughout all six cemeteries: the primary cemetery, the three extensions of the primary, the north cemetery (about 10 minutes away from the primary cemetery) and one south of Wadi Qumran. Despite  the large number of tombs present in the cemeteries, Roland de Vaux only excavated 43 graves, while Solomon H. Steckoll examined ten. and Broshi and Eshel three, However, excavation of Jewish burials has been halted. Of de Vaux's 43 tombs, forty skeletons were fit to examine. Twenty-two of these are now in Germany (Collectio Kurth) and eighteen are in French institutions (Musee de l’Homme, Paris and Ecole Biblique, Jerusalem). The majority of the graves are aligned very neatly with the heads to the south and the feet to the north. Within the southern extension of the primary cemetery , there are also some graves with the head to the east and their feet to the west. The graves themselves are made seen through the piling of field stones on top in an oval shape. Some have larger stones at the head, some at the feet. The graves are dug straight down with the depth ranging from 0.8 meter to 2.5 meters. At the bottom of the graves, is a small cavity, or a loculi. Here the body is laid. From there the body is protected by a stone or clay brick, meant to act as a cap. The bodies  themselves are laid on their backs in solitude, or in some cases with a second body. Some of the bodies were buried in coffins, while others merely wrapped in shrouds. They were buried with no possessions except for a minimal amount that had some second temple period pottery buried with them at their feet and some were found with jewelry. Bedouin Intrusion. Most theories suggest that the bodies were from the second temple period. There are some theories that many of the graves belong to or were borrowed by Muslim Bedouins, considering Bedouins still inhabit that area. Bedouin are known  to intrude on other communities cemeteries, so it would not be unusual if they did so at the Qumran location. Part of excavating the graves is to figure out which grave consists of whom. Some characteristics or occurrences that support that the grave may be occupied by a Bedouin opposed to a second temple period being are as follows: Other cemeteries. For many years after the examination of the cemetery, Qumran's tombs were considered unique, as no similar examples had been found. However, more recently a number of cemeteries have yielded single north-south shaft tombs. The small cemetery  at Ein el-Ghuweir, 13 kilometers south of Qumran, produced 18 shaft burials of which 13 had a north-south orientation, four were nearly so, and the last was east-west. There were twelve men and six women. The archaeologist believed he had found another settlement of the same sect he thought was at Qumran. Further south, the cemetery at Hiam el-Sagha contains twenty north-south tombs, mostly north-south and two were examined. One held a 3–4-year-old child and the other a 25-year-old man. Shaft tombs have been found in Jerusalem, one at Talpiot , another at Mamila, and at Beth Zafafa around 25 tombs were found. Hachlili states, "The tombs at Jerusalem (and Hiam el-Sagha) show no real proof that they are Jewish graves, except for their considerable similarity in form to the Qumran burials." In 1996 and 1997 a rescue excavation was carried out at Khirbet Qazone near the southern end of the Dead Sea in Jordan. This site has an estimated 3,500 tombs, mostly looted, all with the same characteristics as the Qumran graves. Twenty-three undisturbed burials were examined. These Qumran-type tombs held Nabataeans.