xxi + 421 pp. with 15 figs. &amp; 14 plates, 8vo.

Archives from Elephantine: The Life of an Ancient Jewish Military Colony

History

Porten, Bezalel

World

University of California Press

Some 340 Aramaic ostraca of the Persian and Hellenistic periods have been excavated at 32 sites in Israel, from Yokneam in the north to Eilat in the south, with Arad and Beersheba being the main contributory sites. By far, however, the largest cache of texts is what has come to be known as “the Idumean ostraca”. These did not come from formal excavations but began to appear on the antiquities market in 1991. Since then, some 2,000 ostraca have reached 9 museums and libraries and 21 private collections. Of these, the majority are still not formally published, and in this volume (and those to follow), Bezalel Porten undertakes to provide a comprehensive edition of all these texts, in many cases as an editio princeps. Porten, with the expert epigraphic assistance of Ada Yardeni and hand-copies by her as well, here provides the first volume of texts, organized by “dossier” based on the primary personage cited in the text. Color photographs (where available), ceramic descriptions, hand-copies, transcription, translation, and commentary are provided for each text, along with figures and tables, and introductions and summaries of each dossier. An included CD contains a catalogue of all the texts and three color key-word-in-context concordances, for words, personal names, and months for the entire corpus. This publication will become the primary resource for information on these texts.

Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea, Volume 1: 401 Commodity Chits

Literature & Fiction

Yardeni, Ada.

History & Criticism

Eisenbrauns

Since 1991, some 2,000 Aramaic ostraca deriving from the south of Israel have appeared on the antiquities market and are now scattered in 9 museums and libraries and 21 private collections. Of these, the majority are still not formally published, and in this second volume in the series, Bezalel Porten continues the publication of this important corpus of 4th century B.C.E. economic texts. With the expert epigraphic assistance of Ada Yardeni and hand-copies by her as well, Porten here provides the second volume of texts, organized by “dossier” based on the primary personage cited in the text. Color photographs (where available), ceramic descriptions, hand-copies, transcription, translation, and commentary are provided for each text, along with tables of seven grain dossiers. This publication will become the primary resource for information on these texts, which provide insight into the economic, social, and religious lives of Idumeans in the late Persian and early Hellenistic periods.

Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea, Volume 2: Dossiers 11-50: 263 Commodity Chits

Religion & Spirituality

Since the early 1990s, about two thousand Idumean Aramaic ostraca have found their way onto the antiquities market and are now scattered across a number of museums, libraries, and private collections. This multivolume textbook classifies these ostraca according to subject matter and brings them together into a single publication. With this fourth installment, Bezalel Porten and Ada Yardeni continue their comprehensive edition of Aramaic ostraca from Idumea. 
Volumes 1–3 published and cataloged 255 Personal Name Dossiers containing 1,152 texts. Volume 4 contains 377 texts divided into six dossiers, including 54 payment orders, 77 accounts, 74 workers texts, 62 names, 87 jar inscriptions, and 23 letters. The payment orders document officially authorized transfers of goods, while the accounts show how those goods were inventoried. The workers texts illustrate the distribution and supply of laborers, the name lists show people as individuals, and the jar inscriptions track vessels in motion. Color photographs, ceramic descriptions, hand-copies, transcriptions, translations, and commentaries are provided for the texts, along with figures and tables, and introductions and summaries of each dossier.
A unique source for the onomastics and social and economic history of fourth-century Idumea—and, by extension, of Judah—this multivolume work will become the primary resource for information on these texts.

Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea, Volume 4

Since the early 1990s, about two thousand Idumean Aramaic ostraca have found their way into museums, libraries, and private collections. Four major publications covering some of these texts have appeared, three of which encompass the ostraca held by individual collectors only. This multivolume work classifies the ostraca according to subject matter and brings them together in a single publication. Volumes 1 and 2 covered fifty personal name dossiers (TAO A1-50). Volume 3 contains more than two hundred more such dossiers (TAO A51-255a) and numerous fragments. Each text is accompanied by a color photograph and hand-copy, a facing transcription and translation, and a ceramic description and commentary. The translation uniquely provides marginal captions identifying the phrases. In addition to the presentation of individual texts, there are six dossiers of tables covering all the commodity chits, parallel tables that classify them according to month or size, and comparative lists of entries.
Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea is a unique source for the onomastics and the social and economic history of fourth-century Idumea and, by extension, Judah (Yehud).

Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea, Volume 3

The Elephantine Papyri in English: Three Millennia of Cross-Cultural Continuity and Change, Second Revised Edition (Studies in Near Eastern Archaeology and Civilisation, 22)

Society of Biblical Literature

This complete grammar of Egyptian Aramaic, as presented in texts of Egyptian provenance dating from the middle of the first millennium BCE, covers phonology, morphology, morphosyntax, and syntax, and is essential for every Aramaist, Semitist and historian in the field.

A Grammar of Egyptian Aramaic, Second Revised Edition (Handbook of Oriental Studies / Handbuch Der Orientalistik) (English and Aramaic Edition)

Muraoka, Takamitsu

Ancient Civilizations

SBL Press

Since the early 1990s, about two thousand Idumean Aramaic ostraca have found their way onto the antiquities market and are now scattered across a number of museums, libraries, and private collections. This fifth and final volume of the Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea completes the work of bringing these ostraca together in a single publication. Volumes 1-4 published some 1,600 ostraca that gave us insight into agriculture, economics, politics, onomastics, and scribal practices from fourth/third-century BCE Idumea and Judah. The ostraca in volume 5 come from the same milieu, but the information they provide is entirely new and different. This volume presents 485 ostraca, including 99 land descriptions, 168 uncertain texts, and 218 assorted remains, scribal exercises, and forgeries, along with useful indexes and tables and a comparative list of entries. The land descriptions--which record local landmarks, ownership boundaries, and land registration--provide rich complementary material to the rest of the Idumean ostraca. The "uncertain texts" are fragmentary, in poor condition, or contain other abnormalities. As the TAO corpus becomes better understood and as imaging techniques improve, these texts will help to fill gaps in knowledge. The final section includes the remains of scribal practices and forgeries, important because they help to show the authenticity of the other two thousand pieces. A unique collection of documentary sources for fourth/third-century BCE Idumea--and, by extension, of Judah--this multivolume work will be a powerful resource for those interested in the onomastics and social and economic history.

Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea, Volume 5: Dossiers H–K: 485 Ostraca (Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea, 5)

Dictionary of the North-West Semitic Inscriptions Part One ' - L (Handbook of Oriental Studies/Handbuch Der Orientalistik)

Reference

Hoftijzer, J.

Jongeling, K.

Steiner, Richard C.

Foreign Language Study & Reference

Brill Academic Pub

175 documents, spanning more than 3,000 years, from the ancient mounds on the island of Elephantine are translated into English here for the first time. A massive collection of papyri and ostraca, written in many scripts and tongues - including hieratic, demotic, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Coptic and Arabic. Each entry, arranged thematically, includes information on date, size, parties, objects, content and significance, as well as general comments and cross-references. An important source, previously scattered among various museums and institutions, brought together here for the first time.

The Elephantine Papyri in English (Documenta Et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui, Vol 22)

Farber, J. J.

Martin, C. J. F.

Vittmann, G.

BRILL

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