An extraordinary Greek papyrus discovered in the Judaean Desert and published in January 2025 (P.Cotton, Tyche 38) documents a prosecution for forgery and fiscal fraud involving enslaved persons in the Roman provinces of Iudaea and Arabia. The papyrus provides consequential new insights into the region during a turbulent period marked by a series of large–scale Jewish rebellions against Roman rule. Various questions remain open: how to interpret banditry in the Roman context and specifically in the Near East has been debated by historians for decades. More detective work is necessary to elucidate the details of the forgery and tax evasion described in the papyrus, and more may be discovered about its find context and possible reasons why it was retained and carried to the Judaean Desert. Textual references to transporting and counterfeiting coins and the ownership and manumission of enslaved persons among Jews, particularly from the perspective of Jewish law, are some of the many issues requiring further investigation. The aim of this conference is to discuss the papyrus and other new evidence from the region from the perspective of different disciplines, bringing together scholars of ancient history, epigraphy, papyrology, archaeology, numismatics, ancient Judaism, and ancient legal history. The conference aims to contribute to a nuanced historical interpretation of this complex document while revisiting key questions and debates about the ancient Near East in relation to the Roman empire.