More on that courtesan's tomb

UPDATE: Israeli Archaeologists May Have Found First-ever Grave of Hetaira From Time of Alexander the Great. Buried 2,300 years ago on the road to Jerusalem, with grave goods consisting of nails and a mirror from the time of Alexander of Macedonia, archaeologists surmise this woman was a Greek courtesan (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

The highly specific interpretation of her manner of life is based on the convergence of several lines of evidence, explain Dr. Guy Stiebel of Tel Aviv University and Liat Oz of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in a joint paper to be published in the journal New Studies on Jerusalem (Hebrew).

In archaeology, the range of interpretative possibilities is generally wide, Stiebel tells Haaretz by phone. “But there are times the stars align and the anomalies ultimately converge to one scenario. There are rare cases where you have to say: that’s what it is.”

This article is a little more cautious, and it lays out in more detail the process of inference that led the archaeologists to conclude that this was a tomb of a hetaira courtesan.

Background here.

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