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Judaea. Jerusalem. 20 BCE to 135 CE. Soft limestone ossuary. Funerary.
Judaea. Jerusalem.
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Ἀλέξας Μάρα μήτηρ
Ἰούδας Σίμων υἱὸς αὐτῆς
of Alexa Mara, mother of Judas, Simon, her son
Damaged ossuary has low feet and a flat overhanging lid (w:69 cm). Inscription is on the chest's front side. Second line has a break after the first word; the rest of the line is inscribed a bit higher than it. The name Ἀλέξα is in the genitive here. Presumably a contraction of Ἀλεξάνδρα, it is otherwise unattested as a female name. Μάρα is a contracted form of Μάρθα; Σίμων is a common name; Ἰούδας is a mistaken inflection for Ἰούδου. Such errors are not unusual, nor are double names, as in Alexa Mara, and the naming of a woman as "X, mother of Y." Simon seems to have been an infant son interred with his mother.