Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University believe that they have uncovered the first ever grave of a Greek hetaira (courtesan) in a carved limestone tomb, which was discovered beside the road between Jerusalem and Hebron in 2019. The hetairai were women who travelled with men of rank in Hellenic Greek society, and thereby gained some social standing themselves; they did not have the status of wives, who were expected to remain at home (Penelope, considered an icon of virtue in Ancient Greek society, was supposed to have faithfully waited decades for her husband, Odysseus, to return from the Trojan wars, rejecting over a hundred suitors in that time), but neither were they common prostitutes (although they did provide sexual services), typically being literate, educated, and accomplished women. The hetaira were a sufficiently important part of Hellenic society that we know the names of many of their number (such as Thais, hetaira to Alexander the Great, or Phyne, reputed to have been the richest woman in the Hellenic world). Despite this prominence, no tomb of a hetaira has ever been found.
The tomb comprised a entrance room, which it was necessary to climb down into, from which a burial chamber could be entered, although this was then sealed with large stone blocks, sealed with bitumen, and then plastered over. This was not a typical Hellenic Greek burial, however within the chamber were found charred bones (a sign of incomplete cremation, which is known among Greeks of the period), ascribed to a woman in her 20s or 30s, some iron nails, which were commonly included in burials by Greeks, Romans, and Hebrews, as a ward against evil magic, and a type of folding bronze mirror, associated with high-status women in the Hellenic world.
It is the presence of a folding mirror that has led to the conclusion that the woman in the tomb was a hetaira. These were high-status items, only 63 such mirrors have ever been discovered, all associated with high status women. The items clearly had strong gender and status associations; Hellenic Greek men are known to have been quite capable of considerable vanity, but were never buried with mirrors, while poor women are highly unlikely to have owned such an item. The location of the tomb, by a road through a desert and far from any ancient settlement, makes it highly unlikely that the occupant was a stay-at-home Greek wife, leading the conclusion that the woman was most likely a hetaira. Exactly how she came to be buried in such a remote spot will probably never be known, but it is possible she was accompanying an officer in the army of Alexander the Great, which passed through the area during his war against Persia; Alexander was criticised during this campaign for investing more effort in burying dead hetairai than soldiers who had died fighting for him - with specific reference to burying heterai beside roads.
Hellenic folding mirrors were often elaborately decorated both inside and out, commonly with pornographic scenes (apparently seen as suitable gifts for virtuous wives by high status men of the period). The mirror from the tomb of the hetaira is decorated on the outside with a simple pattern of concentric circles; the mirror is corroded shut making it impossible to tell if there is a design on the interior.
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