Personal Papers of Babatha of Maoza

Abstract

Abstract work: In the late 1950s, Israeli archaeologists excavating a cave associated with Simeon bar Kokhba, leader of the second Jewish revolt against Rome (ca. 132–35 c.e.), found a set of papyrus documents rolled up in a leather bag. These turned out to contain the personal papers of a Jewish woman named Babatha, who was probably born around the year 100 c.e., and who may have died in the revolt. Although the find was described quickly in preliminary publications, the first volume of the papyri was not published until 1989, and a second volume is still awaited. Named for the lead archaeologist, Yigael Yadin, these papyri include marriage contracts, loan documents, guardianship papers, land registrations, and more. Written in Greek, Aramaic, and the regional language of Nabatean, transacted in diverse legal jurisdictions, and involving Jews, Roman citizens (who may or may not have been Jews), and Nabateans, these papyri throw into sharp relief the diverse cultural and legal environments in which Babatha and those around her lived their lives. They offer us the most detailed portrait yet of an actual Jewish woman from Greco-Roman antiquity (although it should be noted that a few scholars have raised questions about Babatha’s ethnicity/”religion”). Frustratingly, though, these papyri speak indirectly at best to questions of religious practice. translation and text: Naphtali Lewis, Yigael Yadin and Jonas C. Greenfield, eds., The Documents from the Bar Kokhba Period in the Cave of Letters, Judean Desert Studies 2 (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society; Hebrew University: Shrine of the Book, 1989); Yigael Yadin, [posthumously], Jonas C. Greenfield, and Ada Yardeni, “Babatha’s Ketubbah,” IEJ 44, nos. 1–2 (1994): 75–101 (for 62A). bibliography: Hannah M. Cotton and J. C. Greenfield, “Babatha’s Property and the Law of Succession in the Babatha Archive,” ZPE 104 (1994): 211–24; Hannah Disputes between Babatha and Her Co-widow, Miriam P. Yadin 26July 9, 131 c.e.