Babatha's Orchard

Sat, 05 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

99 BCE - 135 CE (Roman period)

Garden Description

Babatha's orchard is known only from its documentation in a collection of papyrus scrolls known as the "Babatha Archive" that was discovered in 1961 in the Cave of Letters near the Dead Sea. Babatha was among a group of Jewish fugitives who took shelter in the cave near the end of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (15-135 CE). While in hiding, Babatha buried a cache of her personal possessions that included thirty-five legal documents dated between 94 CE and 132 CE. It is assumed that, soon after, Babatha was taken prisoner or killed by Roman soldiers.

One scroll in the Babatha Archive, (P. Yadin 3), records in Nabataean Aramaic the purchase of a date-palm orchard by the Judean, Shim'on ben Menahem, in December 99 CE. The property is described as located in the village of Maḥoz 'Eglatain (Maoza) with "its boundaries to the east, the road; and to the west, the houses of Ḥunainu, son of Tayim-'Illahi, and the houses of Taha, the daughter of 'Abad Ḥaretat; and to the south, the orchard of our Lord, Rabb'el. the King, King of the Nabataeans,..., and to the north, the swamp," the latter seemingly referring to the murky Dead Sea coastline (Fig. 2). The purchase included the date-palm orchard along with its irrigation ditches and its assigned watering periods, "half of one hour on the first day of the week." (translations from Esler 2017:247). The perenial stream that flows through Wadi Hasa is the likely source of irrigation water for Babatha's date-palm orchard and other crops in the village of Maḥoz 'Eglatain (Maoza).

Some years later, Shim'on ben Menahem transferred ownership of the property to his daughter, Babatha. When she registered the land with the Roman census in Deceber 127 CE (P. Yadin 16), it is described as divided into two adjacent orchards and given the name "Algiphiamma" (Aramaic for "by the seashore").

Maps

Fig. 1: Map showing the approximate location of Babatha's orchard in Maoza in Arabia Petraea.

Credit: Map by L.-A. Bedal, based on Andrein, with the assistance of EraNavigator

Plans

Fig. 2: A proposed plan of the date-palm orchard described in Babatha's Archive.

Credit: Plan by L.-A. Bedal (based on Esler 2017:Fig. 7.2)

Bibliography

Esler, P. F. 2017. Babatha's Orchard: The Yadin Papyri and an Ancient Jewish Family Tale Retold, Oxford. (worldcat)
Lewis, N., et al. 1989. The Documents from the Bar Kokhba Period in the Cave of the Letters, Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society. Pp. 65-68, Plate 13. (worldcat)