The Bible goes out of it's way to say that Mary Magdalen went.
The Bible takes time to mention that Joanna went.
It specifically mentions that Salome went.
Where is the Mary that you Catholics believe in? Did she drop Jesus like a hot potato the minute she saw that He had died?
How disrespectful.
And Mary rising up in those days, went into the hill country with haste into a city of Juda. And she entered into the house of Zachary and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. And she cried out with a loud voice and said: "Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb! And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord [kyrios ="kyrios", Lord God"] should come to me? For behold as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord."All generations will call her "blessed". That includes you, sir. How dare you speak so insultingly of "the mother of my Lord"?And Mary said: "My soul doth magnify the Lord.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid: for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed."-- St. Luke 1:39-48
If you don't accept the virginity of Mary, that's your problem -- but to speak of her as if she were some sort of fickle groupie is deeply offensive to any Christian. We're talking about the Mother of God here, not some kind if Judean mall trash! Show some respect!
Shame on you.
It is Jewish practice, presumably going back to Apostolic times (the period of the Talmud) that one minimizes the visits to a loved one's grave during the first year. Additionally, Mary, as a devout Jew, would have been observing shiva, a full week of mourning in which the immediate family of the deceased stay home, abstain from any creature comforts (such as music or perfume), and go without shoes (shoes being regarded as a sign of comfort and prosperity). [see, for example, chapter 42 of Rabbi Chaim Binyamin Goldberg, Mourning in Halachah, publ. 1991 by Mesorah Publishing] Mary might have been observing shiva or, being considerably older and perhaps more griefstricken than the other women, was not among the first to reach the tomb.
As for the part of the inscription that was thought more ancient than the rest, "Jesus son of Joseph" (keeping in mind that Jesus is the Greek equivalent of Joshua) is about as common as "Robert son of William" would be nowadays.