Jacobus - Calendars from Jewish Documents in the Judean Desert 273 Hen 35(2/2013) CALENDARS FROM JEWISH DOCUMENTS IN THE JUDEAN DESERT FROM THE FIRST REVOLT TO BAR KOKHBA * HELEN R. JACOBUS, University College London Introduction It is apparent that the Aramaic and Hebrew legal documents from the First and Second Revolts are dated with Babylonian calendar dates 1 and that the years of time are indicated by nationalist Jewish dating formulas (that is, counting the years from the beginning of the liberation of Israel or Jeru- salem, and later, by Bar Kokhba). This is in direct opposition to the system used by the ruling administration: the Roman calendar for days and months cpf vjg qhÝekcn. rqnkvkecn Tqocp fcvkpi hqtowncu *eqwpvkpi vjg {gctu htqo vjg qhÝekcn cuegpukqp qh vjg gorgtqt. cpf1qt vjg eqpuwnct {gct. cpf1qt htqo vjg beginning of the Roman administration of Nabatea in 106 CE in that area). It is also of note that local Aramaic Jewish legal documents from before and after the First Revolt and before the Second Revolt are dated by the Babylo- nian calendar for the day and month combined with different variations of the Roman dating formulas for the year concerned. It is possible that this hybrid hqto gpcdngf vjg {gct vq dg kfgpvkÝgf cu tgswktgf. hqt xcnkfkv{ qt enctkv{ qwv- side of a rebel community, while the scribes retained the communitys Jewish identity and customs, as indicated by the use of the Babylonian instead of the Roman calendar. The research suggests that the Aramaic and Hebrew legal documents may contain the earliest examples of the luni-solar, Babylonian calendar used in practice for Jewish civil purposes. They are, therefore, of interest to calendar studies and the history of the early Jewish calendar. Furthermore, by examin- ing all the civilian archives from the Judean caves collectively and taking on board their different calendar and dating formulas we have additional sources of historical, political, sociological, ideological and theological data related to the activities of Jewish communities in the caves area. This information affords an insight into how these communities lived and thought during these times of political change, rebellion and destabilisation. * I would like to thank the participants in the Qumran section for their useful and interesting comments in the discussion that followed this paper at the International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, St Andrews, Scotland, July 8, 2013. This paper was entitled First and second century calendars in documents from the Cave of Letters and elsewhere. 1 Since we do not know what the difference was between the Jewish and Babylonian calendars, I have referred to what appears to be the Babylonian calendar with the month names translated into Aramaic in the Jewish documents as the Babylonian calendar, rather than the Jewish calendar, for the sake of argument. 7.Articles - Jacobus.indd 273 04/12/2013 22.25.13