Judeans/Arameans at Elephantine: Their Social and Economic Status in Light of New Persian Period Texts from Egypt and Babylonia
Final Report Abstract
Our research project was twofold. First, the newly available Judean and other Semitic sources from the Persian period were to be examined regarding the social status of the Judean/Aramaeans at Elephantine. Based on recent publications of previously unknown material, such as over 126 Aramaic fragments from Elephantine and 98 unpublished texts from Babylonia, a philological analysis of these texts was necessary. Secondly, the main task of our project was to challenge a perspective on the Judean/Aramaic people of Elephantine that was established more than 55 years ago by Bezalel Porten and still has its adherents. Porten perpetuated the view of previous scholars and defined Elephantine as a Persian military colony but interpreted its culture through the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah. As a result of our research project, we can say that the economic and social situation of the Judean/Aramean people must be seen in a much wider context than previous research has suggested. Elephantine was not a military colony, but an important part of the Persiandominated economic strategy. On the basis of the newly accessible textual sources mentioned above, the principal researcher in the project has come to the following conclusion: During the 5th century, most of the Egyptian province was structured around landed property, and five institutional levels are evident in the textual data from Saqqara and Syene/Elephantine: the Royal Estates, the Fort System which ran the districts, the Recognized Colonial Communities, the Native Communities, and the Peripheral Native Settlements. The first two are solely bureaucratic institutions, while the lower three are organized around temple institutions that the bureaucrats’ monitored. Previous scholarship had seen the Judeans as an independent community hired by the Persians to control the frontier, but the discovery and articulation of the administrative system of the island and province radically changes this view. Judean life was colonial life: it promoted the imperial Persian cultural agenda while negotiating coexistence with the native Egyptians. The Judeans were not an independent religious community. The 'identity' of the Judeans was largely an administrative construction of the Persian system, which gave them advantages, especially over the native Egyptians, as a recognised colonial settlement. In addition to providing a new perspective on the social and economic status of the Judeans/Arameans at Elephantine, the research project provides new insights into the Persianperiod pottery found at Elephantine and the library of the Egyptian temple of Khnum. Given that Elephantine was the site of an important Egyptian temple and served as the administrative center of southern Egypt’s 1st cataract, our research provides a new perspective on the Judeans/Arameans beyond the traditional definition as a military colony.
Publications
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“New Phoenician and Aramaic Labels and Ostraca from Excavations at Syene and Elephantine between 2010–2015,” Semitica 64 (2022): 71–130.
Moore, James D., Wolfgang Müller, Cornelius von Pilgrim & Mariola Hepa
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“The Aramaic and Hebrew Epigraphs on the Tablets in and around Iahūd,” in Judaeans by the Waters of Babylon: New Historical Evidence in Cuneiform Sources from Rural Babylonia Primarily from the Schøyen Collection by Cornelia Wunsch, 371–384. Babylonische Archive 6. ISLET, 2022. ISBN-13 9783981826074
Moore, James D.
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AIBL-CIS de Ricci no. 2. Dead Sea Discoveries, 30(2), 129-151.
Moore, James D. & Gorea, Maria
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Administering Cult at Elephantine. Yahwism under the Achaemenid Empire, 305-336. De Gruyter.
Moore, James D.
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The Legality of Persian Period Memoranda. The Dynamics of Early Judaean Law, 153-180. De Gruyter.
Moore, James D.
