The final resting place

A tomb dating back 2,300 years ago could belong, according to archaeologists, to a courtesan following Alexander the Great's army

This interpretation, proposed by archaeologists Guy Stiebel and Liat Oz, is based on a series of observations. First of all, her body was cremated and subsequently buried in a chamber tomb on the road from Jerusalem to Hebron. The burial is located far from any inhabited center or settlement known today. Furthermore, the tomb is not a simple hole in the ground, but is made up of an access chamber and an internal one which contained the actual burial, both plastered. The entrance to the chambers was sealed by a large stone cemented with bitumen from the Dead Sea. Anthropological analysis established that the remains belonged to a young woman, between 20 and 30 years old.

The most interesting thing, however, are the objects that she had with her, and in particular the bronze mirror. Although it was a valuable personal object that women received as a dowry, finds of this type are very rare in the Hellenic world and only two others are known from Israel. The metal boxes that contained the actual mirrors were often decorated with elaborate designs, while this one is with concentric circles. However, the shape suggests a Greek origin of the woman. Nails, however, in the Greco-Roman world as in the Jewish world, were often placed in tombs as protection against evil.
All these elements, a young woman of Greek origins in possession of a precious possession buried in an elaborate tomb along a road far from cities and settlements, make one think of a Hetaira, the cultured and educated courtesans of the world Greek who, according to sources, accompanied the generals of Alexander the Great's army.

«Alexander of Macedonia was even criticized», says Stiebel, «for having invested not in the tombs of the Greek soldiers fallen in the war against Persia, but in his courtesans on the main road. Perhaps we can, cautiously, see a correlation here."


Agnese Picco
NP November 2023