Babatha (also known as Babata) was a Jewish woman who lived in the town of Maḥoza (at the south-eastern tip of the Dead Sea in what is now Jordan) at the beginning of the second century CE. In 1960, archaeologist Yigael Yadin discovered a leather pouch containing her personal documents in what came to be known as the Cave of Letters, near the Dead Sea. The documents found include such legal contracts concerning marriage (ketubba), property transfers, and guardianship. These documents, ranging from CE 96 to 134, depict a vivid picture of life for an upper-middle class Jewish woman during that time. They also provide an example of the Roman bureaucracy and legal system under which she lived. Life Babatha was born in approximately 104 CE, probably in Mahoza. The town was part of the Nabataean Kingdom until 106 CE, when the kingdom was conquered by the Roman Empire and turned into the Roman province of Arabia. Mahoza was predominantly Nabatean but had a sizable Jewish community. It was located just inside Nabatea, close to the border with Judea. It was a port on the Dead Sea and a flourishing center of date palm cultivation. Her father, Shimon, son of Menachem, was from Ein Gedi in Judea and came to Mahoza roughly around the time of her birth and bought property there. He is known to have bought a date palm orchard from Archelaus, a Nabatean provincial governor, in 99 CE. Archelaus had purchased the same orchard only a month before but rescinded the purchase. He gave Shimon two documents to help him secure his title to the orchard. This behavior by such a high-status figure as Archelaus indicates that the Nabatean elite were not particularly status-fixated due to their nomadic background. The earliest document that mentions Babatha is the deed gift that her father Shimon left to her mother Miriam. Most likely the eldest daughter, she inherited her father's property in Mahoza, several date palm orchards, upon her parents’ deaths. Her first husband was Jesus, son of Jesus, whom she probably married around 120 CE, when she would likely have been around 12–15 years old. They had a son who was also named Jesus. By 124 CE, her first husband had died. She was remarried by 125 CE to Judah, son of Eleazar Ketushyon, the owner of three date palm orchards in Ein Gedi, who had another wife, Miriam,