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The Mishnah (late 2nd century C.E.) describes the donations of Helena and her son Munbaz (=Monbazus II), "King Monobaz had all the handles of all the vessels used on Yom Kippur made of gold. His mother Helena had a golden candlestick made over the door of the Hechal. She also had a golden tablet made, on which the portion about the Sotah was inscribed. "
Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews, tells the story of Queen Helena of Adiabene and her sons Kings Izates II and Monobazus II, and how they converted to Judaism in the mid-first century C.E. Rabbinic literature preserves several anecdotes about this family. However, the rabbis knew little about them, and grappled with their insider/outsider status.
Her tomb was discovered by the French archaeologist Louis Félicien Caignart de Saulcy (1807–1880), who conducted the first systematic archaeological dig in Jerusalem in the middle of the nineteenth century.