Biblical Archaeology Review

See, for example, Robert Alexander Stuart Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer 1902–1905 and 1907–1909, vol. 3 (London: Palestine Exploration Fund, 1912), pl. 105:27. For the appropriation of the menorah motif by Christians, see Leonard V. Rutgers, “Archaeological Evidence for the Interaction of Jews and Non-Jews in Late Antiquity,” American Journal of Archaeology96 (1992), pp. 110–111; and Erwin R. Goodenough, “An Early Christian Bread Stamp,” Harvard Theological Review 57 (1964), pp. 133–137.

For discussions of the meaning of this motif, see Renate Rosenthal and Renee Sivan, Ancient Lamps in the Schloessinger Collection, Qedem 8 (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1978), p. 166; Nitowski, “Inscribed Lamps,” pp. 23–24; and Charles A. Kennedy, “The Development of the Lamp in Palestine,” Berytus 14 (1963), pp. 83–85. Loffreda (Lucerne Bizantine, pp. 215–218) has suggested identifying it as a tree of life.

Bezalel Porten and Ada Yardeni, Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt, vol. 2, Contracts (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1989).

Unfortunately, the French excavators did not supply data about the circumstances of the find.

Yigael Yadin, Bar Kokhba: Rediscovery of the Legendary Hero of the Second Jewish Revolt Against Rome (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971), chaps. 9, 11–12. Pierre Benoit, J.T. Milik and Roland de Vaux, Les Grottes de Murabba‘ât: Textes, Discoveries in the Judaean Desert 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961).

Lewis, Documents, Papyrus 20, p. 91.

Naphtali Lewis, The Documents from the Bar Kokhba Period in the Cave of Letters: Greek Papyri, Judean Desert Studies (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1989), Papyrus 19, p. 85.

Cotton, “A Canceled Marriage Contract from the Judean Desert,” Journal of Roman Studies 84 (1994), pp. 64–86.

The Babatha archive includes not only documents belonging to Babatha but also to her stepdaughter Shelamzion. The archive includes Shelamzion’s marriage contract, a deed of gift and a renunciation of claims.