Researchers Have Deciphered a Nearly 2,000-Year-Old True Crime PapyrusThe Greek document details a court case in ancient Palestine involving tax fraud and provides insight into trial preparations in the Roman Empire The papyrus dates back to between 129 and 132 C.E. Israel Antiquities AuthorityBack in 2014, a researcher from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem rediscovered an ancient papyrus while organizing a storeroom in the Israel Antiquities Authoritys Dead Sea Scrolls Unit. Once found in the Judean Desert, the documents script had previously been classified as Nabataeanan ancient Aramaic languagebut papyrus expert Hannah Cotton knew better.When I saw it marked Nabataean, I exclaimed, Its Greek to me! the researcher says in a statement by the university.Cotton and a team of experts spent the next decade deciphering the 133-line text, and their findings were recently published in the journal Tyche. Turns out, the document is the longest Greek papyrus ever found in the Judean Desert, and its newly translated content is particularly unique: a Roman lawyers detailed notes about the trial of two men accused of tax fraud.This is the best-documented Roman court case from Judaea, apart from the trial of Jesus, says study coauthor Avner Ecker, a historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in the statement.Per the study, the papyrus was likely written on the eve of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, a second-century Jewish uprising against Roman rule. The Roman Empire had colonized Judeathe southern part of ancient Palestinesome 200 years earlier. By 132 C.E., various Roman incursions upon Jewish life, including bans on religious practices, had taken their toll: The dwindling population of Jews in Palestine revolted. The rebellion, led by a man named Bar Kokhba, was crushed by the Romans in 135 C.E., and Jews were subsequently banned from Jerusalem.The newly translated papyrus was written after Roman Emperor Hadrians visit to Judea around 130 C.E. and before the Bar Kokhba Revolt, per the study. It details Romes case against two individualsGadalias and Saulosaccused of forging documentation about selling and freeing slaves to bypass paying Roman taxes.Forgery and tax fraud carried severe penalties under Roman law, including hard labor or even capital punishment, says study coauthor Anna Dolganov, a papyrus expert at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, in the statement.The papyrus was written in vibrant and direct language by a strategizing prosecutor, advising another lawyer about pieces of evidence and anticipating objections, per the statement. The document also contains a rapidly drafted transcript of the judicial hearing itself.As Dolganov says in the statement, This papyrus is extraordinary because it provides direct insight into trial preparations in this part of the Roman Empire.Significant portions of the document are missing, making conclusions about the trials participants difficult to draw. Still, the researchers write that the prosecutors were likely functionaries of the Roman fiscal administration and suggest the defendants were Jews. The papyrus also makes mention of an informer who denounced the defendants to Roman authorities.As Live Sciences Kristina Killgrove writes, the papyrus sheds light on the long-debated question of whether or not ancient Jewish people owned slaves. The document mentions that Saulos family owns multiple slaves, but whether those enslaved people were Jewish is unclear.The trials location and the cases outcome also remain mysterious. Per the study, proceedings may have been interrupted by the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Somehow, this papyrus ended up among a collection of documents stored in caves in the Judean Desertthe Dead Sea Scrolls, which were rediscovered in the mid-20th century.As study coauthor Fritz Mitthof, a historian at the University of Vienna, says in the statement, the papyrus showcases the Romans governmental reach: They regulated private transactions even in remote regions of their empire.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Ancient Civilizations, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Anthropology, Archaeology, Crime, Israel, Language, Law, Middle East , Roman Empire