Babatha hid her lawsuits over her son's guardianship and her dead husband's orchards in a cave during the Bar Kokhba revolt

Babatha was a Jewish woman living in the Roman province of Arabia. Her father Shimon bought a date orchard about 99 CE. About 120 she married Jesus son of Jesus, who died by 124 and left an infant son, also Jesus. In 124 the city council of Petra appointed two guardians for the boy, one Jewish and one Nabataean. Within four months she petitioned the Roman governor that their allowance of two denarii a month was too small. In 125 she summoned the guardians and offered to manage the boy's trust herself against security worth three times its value. A receipt from 132 shows she was still receiving two denarii a month. She then married Judah son of Eleazar Khthousion of Ein Gedi, who already had a wife, Miriam, and a daughter, Shelamzion. In 128 he borrowed from Babatha and gave Ein Gedi property to Shelamzion. He died about 130 owing Babatha 700 denarii for the loan and her dowry. She seized his Ein Gedi date orchards as security. His orphaned nephews, represented by Julia Crispina, contested the seizure. In 132 Miriam summoned Babatha to court in Ein Gedi over Judah's property. That summons is the last document in her archive. Yigael Yadin found her papyri, in Greek, Nabataean and Aramaic, in a leather pouch in the Cave of Letters. Human remains were found nearby. The pouch is held by the Israel Museum.