These eight contributions are an outgrowth of the proceedings from a workshop which was held at the Humboldt University in Berlin in October 2021 and was convened to review James D. Moores New Aramaic Papyri from Elephantine in Berlin (Brill, Studies on Elephantine, 2022). The contributions include responses to Moores readings (Porten and Schmidtkunz) and an invaluable expansion on his archaeological discussion (Schütze), one contribution on Aramaic linguistics (Rudolf), two articles presenting English editions and radio carbon dating results for Persian period Aramaic papyri from Elephantine and Phoenician papyri from Saqqara (Gorea and Moore), a survey of all known Demotic sources from Persian period Elephantine (Moje), and a social historical note arguing that Elephantine/Syene was a site of castor oil production.
James D. Moore is Assistant Professor of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures at the Ohio State University where he teaches ancient Near Eastern Languages and Hebrew Bible. He publishes on Northwest Semitic epigraphy and papyrology, social history of the Achaemenid period, and Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic literatures.
Petra Schmidtkunz is a post-doctoral researcher at the Humboldt University of Berlin/Germany. Her dissertation on Deuteronomy 32 was published as Das Moselied des Deuteronomiums (2020). She has a keen interest in ancient languages and publishes on different aspects of the Hebrew Bible in its Ancient Near Eastern context.
Contributors are: Bezalel Porten, Stefanie Rudolf, Petra Schmidtkunz, Maria Gorea, James D. Moore, Alexander Schutze, Jan Moje, Damien Agut-Labordere.
