Image Details

Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Babatha, a wealthy jewish woman living in the area of Zoar, held this papyrus document as proof of inheritance of date orchards purchased by her father from a Nabatean landowner in 99 A.D. After the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., many Jews, possibly including Babatha’s father, fled east and south to the shores of the Dead Sea, often taking up residence and buying land in the more fertile, well-watered areas of Zoar.