In 1951 a set of Nabataean manuscripts surfaced in the Middle East. They were purportedly from Wadi Sayaal, on the west side of the Dead Sea. The manuscripts included some twenty items, Some of them were long (dozens of lines of text) and some were small. Ten of the items are precisely dated, and of these five are dated before 106 AD.
Later in 1961, Israeli archeologists exploring caves came across a cave that still contained a fragment of one of the earlier finds. This cave is now known as “The Cave of Letters.”
The twenty odd items were all part of an archive of documents from the Babatha family, most of them dealing with family property.
While some of the research and translations of these texts are now coming out, to date there has been no comprehensive publication of these manuscripts.
An Inventory of the Nabataean Texts on Paprus and Leather as found in the Cave of Letters
John F. Healey
Compiled for the Nabataean Conference, October 2002
| Siglum | Material | Type | Dates A.D. (Chronology of Wenning 1993) |
Published (DCL I = Lewis 1989, DCL II = Yadin et al. 2002) |
Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yadin 1 | papyrus | Debenture | 8 Elul 92⁄3 | DCL II | ||
| Yadin 2 | papyrus | Sale Contract | 3 Kislev 97⁄8 | DCL II | ||
| Yadin 3 | papyrus | Sale Contract | 2 Tebet 97⁄8 | DCL II | ||
| Yadin 4 | papyrus | Guarantor’s agreement | ? 97⁄8 | DCL II | ||
| Yadin 6 | papyrus | Tenency agreement | 119 AD | DCL II | ||
| Yadin 9 | papyrus | Waiver? | 122 AD | DCL II | papyrus | |
| Unclassified fragments | Early 2nd Cent.? | DCL II pl. 56; Yardeni 2000a | The fragments do not relate to Yadin 9 on the same plate | |||
| Yadin 36 + Xhev/Se Nab.1 | papyrus | Redemtion of writ of seizure | Between 59 and 65 AD | Yardeni 2001 | XHev/Se Nab1 alone = Starly paurus (1954) | |
| Yadin 38 | papyrus | Fragment with signature of witness | Unkown | Transliteration only DCL II, [5] | b]r tym’lhy sh[d | |
| Yadin 39 | papyrus | Unclassified frament | Late 1st5 or 2nd cent.? | Yardeni 2000a | ||
| XHev/Se Nab 2 | papyrus | Sale Contract | Late 1st cent.? | Yardeni 2000a | ||
| XHev/Se Nab 3 | papyrus | Contract | Unknown | Tov 1993: 40.659, 40.660 | ||
| XHev/Se Nab 4 | papyrus | Contract | Unknown | Tov 1993:40.663 | ||
| XHev/Se Nab 5 | papyrus | Contract | Unknown | Tov 1993: 40.646 40.647 | ||
| XHev/Se Nab 6 | papyrus | Unclassified fragment | Unknown | unpublished | ||
| P. Mur. 71 | papyrus | Unclassified fragment | Late 1st or early 2nd cent.? | Benoit et al. 1961 (DJD XXVII) | Murrabba’aat | |
| Bodleian MS Heb. d. 89 (P) (e) | papyrus | Unclassified fragments | Late 2nd cent.? | Yardeni 200a | Oxyrhynchus | |
| Yadin 15 | papyrus | Subscription on Greek legal text | 11⁄12 Oct 125 AD | DCL I | ||
| Yadin 22 | papyrus | Subscription on Greek legal text | 11 Sept. 130 AD | DCL I |
Nabataean documents found in the Qumran Caves (Cave 4)
| Siglum | Material | Type | Dates A.D. (Chronology of Wenning 1993) |
Published | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4Q343 | leather | letter | 1st cent.? | Cotton and Yardeni 1997 (DJD XXVII) | Qumran Cave 4 |
Two good books about the Cave of Scrolls
The Documents from the Bar Kokhba period in the Cave of Letters: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Nabatean-Aamaic Papyri (Judean Desert studies)
Publisher: Shrine of the Book (January 1, 2002)
Language: English ISBN: 9652210463
The Finds from the Bar Kokhba Period in the Cave of Letters.
Author: YADIN, YIGAEL,
Jerusalem,, Israel Exploration Society, 1963
279 pp., with 94 figs. & 108 plates (12 in color), 1 folding plan & 21 tables
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