Elephantine

About

Elephantine (EL-if-an-TY-nee, -⁠TEE-; Ancient Egyptian: 𓍋𓃀𓅱𓃰, romanized: bw; Egyptian; Greek: Ἐ Elephantíne; Coptic: (Ⲉ)ⲓⲏⲃ transl. cop – transl. (e)iēb, Coptic pronunciation: [jæb]) is an island on the Nile, forming part of the city of Aswan in Upper Egypt. The archaeological digs on the island became a World Heritage Site in 1979, along with other examples of Upper Egyptian architecture, as part of the "Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae" (despite Elephantine being neither Nubian, nor between Abu Simbel and Philae). The island has been studied through excavation sites. Aramaic papyri and ostraca have been collected to study what life was like on Elephantine during the time of Ancient Egypt. There have been studies about the Elephantine Triad and the Jewish presence that formulated on the island. The standard reference collection of the Aramaic documents of the Elephantine Papyri and Ostraca is the Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt. They document (among other things) a mercenary community with its own Yahweh temple that coexisted and conflicted with local Egyptian religion, culminating in the temple's destruction in 410 BC.

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