Solomon H. Steckoll was a journalist with an interest in ancient Jewish matters. He carried out excavations in the Qumran cemetery

Qumran Cemetery

The Qumran cemetery lies to the east of the settlement at Qumran at a distance of 35 meters. 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...

 and later wrote books about the Jerusalem temple

Temple in Jerusalem

The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...

 and the gates of Jerusalem.

In 1966 Steckoll obtained permission from the Jordanian Antiquities Department to investigate the Qumran cemetery, opening two of the tombs and recovering two male skeletons. In 1967 he opened a further eight tombs, recovering five male and three female skeletons.

During his investigations Steckoll also found an inkwell at Qumran

Qumran

Qumran is an archaeological site in the West Bank. It is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli settlement and kibbutz of Kalia...

.

When Israel took control of the West Bank, Steckoll lost rights to excavate in the cemetery. Roland de Vaux

Roland de Vaux

Father Roland Guérin de Vaux OP was a French Dominican priest who led the Catholic team that initially worked on the Dead Sea Scrolls. He was the director of the Ecole Biblique, a French Catholic Theological School in East Jerusalem, and he was charged with overseeing research on the scrolls...

explains it somewhat bitterly, "The authorities of the Israeli occupation have forbidden this Sherlock Holmes of archaeology to continue his researches at Qumran."

Books by Steckoll

• The gates of Jerusalem (New York: Praeger, 1968; London: Allen & Unwin, 1968)
• The Temple Mount: an illustrated history of Mount Moriah in Jerusalem (London, Tom Stacey Ltd, 1972)
• The Alderney Death Camp (London: Granada Publishing Limited 1982) ISBN 0583134785