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The authors find further evidence of Sepphoris’s deep Jewish culture in this ostracon (second century B.C.E.). The inscription is a Hebrew transliteration of a Greek word, probably some form of the word epimeletes, which is Greek for “manager” or “overseer.” Scholars speculate that it may refer to a Jewish officeholder. If so, this points to a well-developed Jewish community at Sepphoris at least as early as the Hasmonean period (141–37 B.C.E.).