Were the Essenes Vegetarians

Imagine living back then, among people who had no proper concept of what was needed for a healthy, balanced diet, other than by the inclusion of meat therein, yet some historians and Archaeologists state that their findings strongly suggest that a certain Holy order carried on a compassionate and meatless lifestyle, this noteworthy group were part of the Israelite nation and where called by Josephus "The Essenes", and they were contemporaries of the generation that saw the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and the Jewish people as a nation.  

Image left Josephus as a young man

These sincere people were still governed by the law of Moses, yet apparently they had discerned that the ancient scriptures were leading them to the true spirit underpinning the sacred scrolls, and deemed it the appropriate time to depart from causing any suffering to others, either man or beast. 

It seems to us then that these Essenes were a truly well intentioned and God seeking people, for when excavating in there cities archaeologists are astonished to find a lack of evidence of any animal bones in the place where these communities lived, ate and carried on there worship.  There is also mounting belief that Jesus himself taught many things that were originally written down by the Esssene scholars and which have been preserved within the manuscripts called the Dead Sea Scrolls. Jesus Christ himself is held by some historians to have been an Essene, if that were the case he would have undoubtably been a vegetarian.