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investigator have finally decode a 1,900 - year - sometime scroll delineate a tense homage fount during the R.C. occupation of Israel . The determination break more about reprehensible cases from the time and answers a longstanding question about hard worker ownership in the neighborhood .
The document had been classify as written in Nabataean , an ancient Arabic dialect . " When I get word it mark ' Nabataean , ' I cry out , ' It ’s Grecian to me ! " , Egyptian paper rush expertHannah Cottonof the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said in a translatedstatementreleased Jan. 28 .
The newly-translated document is called ‘Papyrus Cotton’
Over the following decade , Cotton assembled a team of expert to trace the 133 - line text , which details effectual proceedings when the region was a province in theRoman Empire . Her team ’s piece of work on the written document was published Jan. 20 in the journalTyche .
The researchers found that the papyrus contain a solidification of notes that a prosecuting attorney may have used to prepare for a trial in front ofRomanofficials during the sovereignty of Emperor Hadrian ( A.D. 117 to 138 ) and before the Bar Kokhba revolt commence in A.D. 132 — a major Jewish uprising against the Roman Empire .
" This is the best - document Roman Catholic court case fromJudaeaapart from the trial of Jesus , " sketch co - authorAvner Ecker , an epigrapher , or researcher of ancient inscriptions , at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , said in the assertion .
Related:1,700 - class - old oil lamp set up in Jerusalem indicate a uncommon Jewish menorah , even though the Romans tried to suppress the religion
The homage case cite in the paper rush text centered on two people — Gadalias and Saulos — who forged documents related to sell and freeing slaves to get around paying Roman taxes .
" Forgery and taxation fraud carried severe penalties under romish constabulary , including hard labour or even capital punishment , " sketch atomic number 27 - authorAnna Dolganov , a papyrus expert at the Austrian Academy of Sciences , said in the argument .
harmonise to the subject area , the document also contained a hastily jotted transcript of the trial and note from one prosecutor to another discussing strategy .
But significant parts of the Egyptian paper reed are missing , thwarting the researchers ' efforts to fully understand the meaning of the text , the researcher said in the work . miss detail let in where the test took place , where the defendants lived and whether they were Roman citizens .
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However , the newly translated paper rush does provide evidence for a much - debate question : whether or not ancient Jewish multitude owned slave . The paper rush says that at least one Judaic family line — that of Saulos and his beginner — owned multiple striver , according to the work , but it is unreadable if those slave were themselves Jewish .
The document does n’t give a light resolution to the court face , which may have been interrupted by the Bar Kokhba rebellion , agree to the work . The rebellion may have caused the roll ’s owner to in haste discard it in the caves of the Judaean desert , where it sat for nearly two millennia with other Dead Sea Scrolls .
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