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{{Short description|2nd century CE Jewish woman whose documents survived}}
'''Babatha''' (also known as Babata) was a [[Jews|Jewish woman]] who lived in the town of Maḥoza (at the south-eastern tip of the Dead Sea in what is now [[Jordan]]) at the beginning of the second century CE. In 1960, [[archaeologist]] [[Yigael Yadin]] discovered a leather pouch containing her personal documents in what came to be known as the [[Cave of Letters]], near the [[Dead Sea]]. The documents found include such legal contracts concerning marriage (''[[ketubba]]''), property transfers, and guardianship. These documents, ranging from CE 96 to 134, depict a vivid picture of life for an upper-middle class Jewish woman during that time. They also provide an example of the [[Roman law|Roman bureaucracy and legal system]] under which she lived.▼
{{Infobox person
| name = Babatha
| birth_date = {{circa|104 CE}}
| birth_place = Maḥoza
| image = Pouch Babatha's document. Israel Museum, Jerusalem.jpg
| caption = Pouch that contained Babatha's document. Leather, Cave of the Letters, Nahal Hever (132–135 CE). Israel Museum, Jerusalem
|children=1
|father=Shimon bar Menachem
|spouse=Jesus bar Jesus ({{circa|120}}–{{circa|124}})<br />Judah Eleazar Ketushyon ({{circa|125}}–130)
}}
▲'''Babatha bat Shimʿon''',
==Life==
[[File:BabathaScroll.jpg|thumb|right|Registration document for four date orchards owned by Babatha]]
Babatha was born in approximately 104 CE, probably in Mahoza. The town was part of the [[Nabataean Kingdom]] until 106, when the kingdom was conquered by the [[Roman Empire]] and turned into the province of [[Arabia Petraea]]. Maḥoza was predominantly [[Nabateans|Nabatean]] but had a sizable Jewish community. It was located just inside Nabatea, close to the border with Judea. It was a port on the [[Dead Sea]] and a flourishing center of [[date palm]] cultivation. Her father, Shimon, son of Menachem, was from [[Ein Gedi]] in Judea and came to Maḥoza roughly around the time of her birth and bought property there. He is known to have bought a date palm orchard from Archelaus, a Nabatean provincial governor, in 99 CE. Archelaus had purchased the same orchard only a month before but rescinded the purchase. He gave Shimon two documents to help him secure his title to the orchard. This behaviour by such a high-status figure as Archelaus indicates that the Nabatean elite was not particularly status-fixated due to their nomadic background.<ref name=bibleinterp>[https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/articles/2017/03/esl418021 Babatha: The Ancient Jewish Woman About Whom We Know Most]</ref>
The earliest document that mentions Babatha is the deed gift that her father Shimon left to her mother Miriam.<ref name=jwa>[https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/babatha Babatha] - Jewish Women's Archive</ref> Most likely the eldest daughter, she inherited her father's property in Mahoza, several [[date palm]] orchards, upon her parents’ deaths. Her first husband was Jesus, son of Jesus, whom she probably married around 120, when she would likely have been around 12–15 years old. They had a son named Jesus.
The documents concerning this marriage offer insight to her status in the relationship. In their [[Ketubah|marriage contract]], Judah's debts become part of her liability, indicating a financial equality. Judah accompanied Babatha to [[Rabba]] to declare her property in Mahoza to the Roman governor of Arabia during a Roman census, and served as her legal guardian in the process. In 128 CE, a legal document shows that Judah took a loan without interest from Babatha, showing that she had control of her own money despite the union. The loan was apparently to cover the gift Judah gave his daughter on the occasion of her wedding. Upon Judah's death in 130 CE, she seized his estates in Ein Gedi as a guarantee against his debts which she had covered as stated in the marriage contract, as the debts had apparently not been paid by his family. In 131 CE, she was embroiled in a legal battle with Judah's other wife over the possessions of their dead husband.<ref name=jwa/><ref>Freund, 200.</ref>▼
By 124, her first husband had died. In 125, she married Judah, the son of Eleazar Ketushyon, the owner of three [[date palm]] orchards in Ein Gedi, who had another wife, Miriam, daughter of Beianus, and a teenage daughter, Shelamzion.<ref>Goodman</ref><ref name=jwa/> It is uncertain whether Babatha lived in the same home as the first wife or if Judah traveled between two separate households, as polygamy was common and mandated by law in the Jewish community.<ref>Freund, 199-207.</ref><ref name=jwa/> Babatha contributed a [[dowry]] of 400 [[denarius|denarii]] to the marriage.<ref name=bibleinterp/>
▲The documents concerning this marriage offer insight
The documents were written on her behalf by Eleazar, son of Eleazar, and Yochana, son of Makhouta. Babatha herself was illiterate as declared by Eleazar, who wrote that "she does not know letters."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hezser|first=Catherine|url=https://books.google.co.il/books?id=zlrxbYml2ioC&pg=PA183#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Jewish Literacy in Roman Palestine|date=2001|publisher=Mohr Siebeck|isbn=978-3-16-147546-7|language=en}}</ref>▼
Upon Judah's death in 130, Babatha seized his estates in Ein Gedi as a guarantee against his debts which she had covered as stated in the marriage contract, as his family had not paid the debts. Judah had died owing her 700 denarii, both from the debt he had taken from her in 128 CE and the original dowry. The documents also indicate that he had taken a loan of 60 denarii for a year at 12% interest from a Roman centurion stationed at Ein Gedi. In 131 CE, she was embroiled in a legal battle with Judah's other wife over the possessions of their dead husband.<ref name=jwa/><ref>Freund, 200.</ref> The documents also show a dispute between Shelamzion and Judah's orphaned sons over the ownership of a courtyard in Ein Gedi he had gifted to Shelamzion. An elite Roman woman, Julia Crispina, represented the sons. The dispute was ultimately settled in Shelamzion's favor. Babatha's seizure of her late husband's property was contested by his sons, whom Julia Crispina again represented in the court of the provincial governor. At one point, Babatha summoned Julia Crispina to court, despite her Roman elite status, claiming that a false charge of violence had been made against her.<ref name=bibleinterp/>
Other documents of importance concern the [[guardianship]] of Babatha's son Jesus. In 124 CE, the Council of Petra appointed two guardians for her son, one Jewish and one Nabatean. Within four months, Babatha petitioned the provincial governor, complaining that the two denarii per month that her son's guardians were providing in maintenance were insufficient. A document from 132 CE indicates that she lost the case, as she was still receiving two denarii a month in maintenance for her son. The document was signed on her behalf by Babeli, son of Menachem, who may have been her paternal uncle. In 125 CE, she brought suit against the Jewish guardian of her son to answer the same charge of insufficient maintenance. She offered to pool her property with the property left in trust for her son so that he could be raised in luxury with the interest on the joint amount.<ref name=bibleinterp/><ref>Chiusi, 121.</ref><ref name=jwa/>
In addition, among the documents in her possession was a record of a sale of a donkey between two brothers, Joseph and Judah, in 122 CE. They are likely to have been Babatha's brothers, and Babatha was probably given the document to hold onto for safekeeping.<ref name=bibleinterp/>
▲The documents were written on her behalf by Eleazar, son of Eleazar, and Yochana, son of Makhouta. Babatha herself was illiterate as declared by Eleazar, who wrote that "she does not know letters."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hezser|first=Catherine|url=https://books.google.
==Death==
The latest documents discovered in the pouch concern a summons to appear in an Ein Gedi court as Judah's first wife, Miriam, had brought a dispute against Babatha regarding their late husband's property. Therefore, it is assumed that Babatha was near Ein Gedi in 132 CE, placing her in the midst of the [[Bar
clasp knife, a box, some bowls, a sickle, and three waterskins. The opening of the hole was sealed with a rock.<ref name=bibleinterp/> Because the documents were never retrieved and because twenty skeletal remains were found nearby, historians have suggested that Babatha perished while taking refuge in the cave.<ref>Freund, 201.</ref>
==Notes==
{{
==Bibliography==
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*[http://papyri.info/ddbdp/p.babatha Transcriptions of some of Babatha's papyri] Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri
{{Bar Kokhba revolt}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Babatha}}
[[Category:Roman-era Jews]]▼
[[Category:104 births]]
[[Category:2nd-century deaths]]
[[Category:Dead Sea Scrolls]]
[[Category:Ancient Jewish women]]
[[Category:2nd-century
[[Category:Ancient businesswomen]]
[[Category:Ancient businesspeople]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]
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