four of the documents were written in Hebrew (P.Yadin 49, 51, 60, 61; see
fig. 18), two in Greek (P.Yadin 52, 59), the rest in Aramaic. These letters give
interesting insight into the legal authority of Bar Kokhba and the social
and economic implications of his command.
The second archive is hardly less famous. It consists of thirty-six legal
documents written in Aramaic (P.Yadin 7–8, 10), Greek (P.Yadin 5, 11–35),
and Nabatean (P.Yadin 1–4, 6, 9; also P.Yadin 36, originally published as
Xμev/Se nab 1) that date from between 11 August 94 and 19 August 132c.e.
They belonged to a Jewish woman named Babatha, who had fled from her
hometown MaFoz Eglatain on the eastern shores of the Dead Sea to the re-
gion of{Ein Gedi (see fig. 17).
Five other documents, belonging to Eleazar ben-Samuel, a farmer
from{Ein Gedi, were also found; these include private legal deeds, mostly
leases and receipts from the time of Bar Kokhba (P.Yadin 42–43 in Ara-
maic, P.Yadin 44–46 in Hebrew, and P.Yadin 47a/b in Aramaic), possibly
belonging to the same archive. These texts offer important insights into
the land administration in{Ein Gedi by Bar Kokhba.
Other documentary texts written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek
come from a fourth archive, one belonging to the family of Salome
Komaise, daughter of Levi: P.μever 12 (Aramaic) is a receipt for dates;
P.μever 60-64 (Greek) are deeds; P.μever 65 (Greek) is a marriage con-
tract. The Nabatean document catalogued as Xμev/Se nab. 1, first pub-
lished by Jean Starcky in 1954 and now called P.Yadin 36, may also come
from this archive, as may the rest of the Nabatean documents from Xμev/
Se. Salome came from the same town as Babatha. Her archive contained
deeds of sale and of gifts, petitions, land registrations, receipts, mortgages,
promissory notes, and marriage contracts covering a period from 30 Janu-
ary 125 until 7 August 131c.e.
Six papyrus documents written in Nabatean (Xμev/Se nab. 1-6), most
of which were found by Bedouin, and one document in Greek probably
belonging to the archive of Salome Komaise (P.Yadin 37) were also found
in the Cave of Letters, as were two fragments that were wrongly assigned to
the Qumran corpus but match texts from NaFalμever (4Q347 and
4Q359). All these texts — the documents from the Bar Kokhba circle, the
archives of private persons, and documents concerning property — closely
resemble text finds from Wadi Murabba{at and Wadi Seiyal.
A second cave on the southern bank, designated 8μev and also known
as the Cave of Horror, was excavated by Aharoni in 1961. It contained more
than forty skeletons together with three ostraca with names of the de-357Archaeology, Papyri, and InscriptionsEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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