ISRAEL EPHʿAL AND JOSEPH NAVEH

ARAMAIC OSTRACA OF THE FOURTH CENTURY BC FROM IDUMAEA

THE MAGNES PRESS, THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY, JERUSALEM ISRAEL EXPLORATION SOCIETY

This book was supported by

The Hebrew University Internal Fund

The Louis and Minna Epstein Fund of

The American Academy for Jewish Research

Copyright © 1996 by

The Magnes Press, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Isreal Exploration Society

All rights reserved

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form (except by reviewers) without written permission from the publishers

ISBN 965-223-958-5

CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

REFERENCES

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS AND COMMENTARY

GLOSSARY

INDICES OF NAMES

PREFACE

The Persian period, and especially the latter part of it, is poor in literary sources and therefore known as a ‘dark age’ of the Palestinian historiography. Written in the last thirty years of the Persian period and the very beginning of the Hellenistic period, the Aramaic ostraca published here shed some light on the demographic fabric and economic reality of an agricultural society in southern Palestine of that era, the range of the dated documents being from 361 to 311 BC. The ostraca presented in this book are part of a larger assemblage whose exact provenance is unknown to us, but whose contents indicate that they are from Idumaea.

Our work started about five years ago, when Mr. Lenny Wolfe was kind enough to provide us with more than 300 photographs of Aramaic ostraca. Of these, 201 ostraca in a relatively good state of legibility are presented here. Among the inscribed sherds published here, 23 belong to the Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem; 2 to the Reuben and Edith Hecht Museum, University of Haifa; and 3 are in the Collection of A. Spaer, Jerusalem (see list that follows). We are grateful to them and to Mr. Wolfe for enabling us to study these ostraca and to publish them.

The photographs made available to us (reproduced here 1:1) are but part of a larger finding, at least double the number we had to hand. Many ostraca of the same provenance are in the possession of private collectors. About 200 additional ones belonging to the Israel Museum were, for some odd reason, entrusted for publication to a non-Israeli scholar.

We are grateful to Dr. Ada Yardeni for drawing the signature signs that occur in some of the ostraca.

The late Professor Benjamin Mazar was aware of the importance of these ostraca for the study of the history of Palestine; from its early stages he demonstrated his interest in our work and frequently encouraged us to continue with it. We dedicate this book to his blessed memory.

I. Ephʿal and J. Naveh

Jerusalem, August 1996