Ernest-Marie Laperrousaz

Who is Ernest-Marie Laperrousaz?

Ernest-Marie Laperrousaz was a French historian and archaeologist. As an archaeologist he worked at Qumran and Masada. He has published numerous books including works on Qumran and the context of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Laperrousaz is now professeur honoraire of the religious studies faculty of the École pratique des hautes études and was formerly the director of that institution. He was a resident at the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem. He has long been acquainted with Qumran, having been a participant in the excavations directed by Roland de Vaux from 1953 to 1956. From 1970 to 1995 Laperrousaz continued an archaeological mission to Jerusalem and the Qumran area on a yearly basis. Always a strong believer in the Qumran-Essene hypothesis, he differed with de Vaux over interpretations of the site of Qumran. His most influential work is Qoumran: L'Etablissement essénien des bord de la Mer Morte: Histoire et archéologie du site, an independent study of the archaeology of Qumran.

Laperrousaz has been a prolific writer on archaeological subjects in French. Among his books are:

Les Manuscrits de la mer Morte, Que sais-je, 1961 ; 1984 ; 10th updated edition, 2003.