Jewish tombstone of Marinus and Justa, decorated with a menorah and other Jewish symbols and inscribed in Greek

Zoar was a large agricultural settlement southeast of the Dead Sea. The tombstones in its cemetery bear Aramaic inscriptions and are decorated with Jewish symbols: the menorah, lulav, shofar, and the facade of the Temple. The epitaphs have a uniform formula, indicating the name of the deceased and the date of death according to a double calendar unique to the headstones of Zoar: years are listed first according to the seven-year shmita cycle and then by the number of years since the destruction of the Second Temple. These are the earliest tombstones found in which Jews cited the date of death on tombstones. The upper portion of this tombstone is decorated with the traditional symbols –menorah, shofar, incense shovel, and lulav – and indicates the names of the buried couple in Greek: "The tomb of Marinus and Yusta his wife." The deceased were apparently wealthy Jews from Syria or Phoenicia who requested to be buried in the prestigious cemetery of Beth She‘arim.