Ancient Roman courtroom drama: Secrets from the Judean desert

In 2014, a researcher from the Israel Antiquities Authority, Hannah Cotton Paltiel from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discovered the longest Greek papyrus ever found. Initially thought to be written in the Nabataean language, the document was revealed to be a Greek text describing a court case from the Roman occupation era. With her team, she translated it, showing that it contains prosecution notes from a 2nd-century CE legal case, dating back to early Roman times.

The papyrus contains notes that might have been used by the prosecutor during the trial before Roman officials under the rule of Emperor Hadrian. The trial centred on two individuals, Gadalias and Saulos, who falsified documents related to slave trading to avoid paying taxes.

Forgery and tax evasion were severely punished under Roman law, potentially involving hard labour or even the death penalty. The document also includes notes from the trial and the prosecutors' strategy, although missing fragments make it challenging to fully comprehend the case.

The papyrus provides evidence that at least one of the mentioned Jewish families owned slaves. However, it is unclear whether those slaves were also Jewish. The trial might have been interrupted by the Bar Kokhba revolt, an armed Jewish uprising against the Roman Empire between 132 and 135 CE, which likely led to the document being discarded in the caves of the Judean Desert.

According to the Live Science portal, this discovery is one of the best-documented legal cases from Judea, apart from the trial of Jesus. Research on the papyrus was conducted by Hannah Cotton from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the results were published in the journal "Tyche".