He interpreted the room above locus 30 as a scriptorium because he discovered inkwells there. A plastered bench was also discovered in the remains of an upper story. De Vaux concluded that this was the area where the Essenes could have written some of the Dead Sea Scrolls. De Vaux also interpreted locus 77 as a refectory, or a community dining hall, based on the discovery of numerous sets of bowls in the nearby pantry of locus 89. Additionally, de Vaux interpreted many of the numerous stepped cisterns as miqva'ot, or Jewish ritual baths, due to their similarity to several stepped and partitioned ritual baths near the Jerusalem Temple Mount.