Map of papyrus ancient egypt plus#

In a land-for-service system, they were ultimately responsible for the defense of Persian interests on the southern frontier of Egypt. Arameans and Jews served in Egypt as soldiers. The consort of Bethel (the Queen of Heaven) was presumably Anat, known as Anat-Bethel or Anat-Yaho among the Jews of Egypt. Assyrian and Babylonian texts show that Banit is another name of Nanay. At Elephantine there were Jews, living around the Temple of Yaho. The Arameans had separate temples for Nabu and Banit, on the one hand, and Bethel and the Queen of Heaven, on the other. At Aswan and Elephantine-known at the time under the names Syene and Yeb-there were two Aramean communities, and a Jewish one. To judge by the shape of the Demotic characters of the text, the papyrus dates from the mid-fourth century BCE.įrom Aramaic texts from a century earlier, we know about the existence of several Aramaic speaking communities in southern Egypt. They refer to Yaho as “our Bull,” which is entirely in line with the North-Israelite practice of venerating Yaho in the form of a young bull (the “Golden Calf”). The third section is Samarian and contains the three Israelite psalms. The second section contains texts from Syrian Arameans that came from Hamath their religion is focused on the god Bethel. The first section is devoted to texts from an Aramean community from Babylonia, worshippers of Nanay and Nabu. Papyrus Amherst 63 is divided in sections. It contains the literary heritage of three communities that had once lived together but now seem worlds apart. The text provides an entry into a vanished world.

Map of papyrus ancient egypt plus#

Today anyone who is interested can look at the photographs of the papyrus, its transliteration and translation, plus a commentary. But until very recently there was no scholarly edition of the complete text. Almost forty years later, Aramaic and Demotic scholars discovered the Aramaic version of Psalm 20 and published other portions of the papyrus.

()Ī few lines in translation were published in the 1940s.

The Amherst papyri: being an account of the Egyptian papyri in the collection of the Right Hon. William Amhurst Tyssen-Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney DL, JP (25 April 1835 – 16 January 1909) (Wikimedia Commons) It took the collaboration of an Aramaic scholar and a Demotic specialist to solve the riddle. Papyrus Amherst 63 was a particular mystery. After Lord Amherst of Hackney acquired the text in the 1890s, Egyptologists tried in vain to break its code. Because the Aramaic texts were written in the Demotic script, experts classified the scroll initially as an Egyptian papyrus. Some of them cover almost 100 lines, others consist of no more than five lines. The papyrus scroll has 23 columns and contains about 35 separate compositions. The three Israelite psalms are part of a collection of traditional Aramaic texts. Understanding these texts has taken over a century. Thanks to an Egyptian papyrus, scholars now have access to some of the songs that belonged to that occasion. Several stories from the Bible have their setting in the harvest festival at the beginning of the New Year.

In combination, these various elements point to a setting in the New Year festival-the historical antecedent of Rosh Hashanah. “The Merciful One exalts the great, Yaho humiliates the lowly one.” The psalms celebrate his kingship over all the other gods. On the day of the New Moon there is a solemn banquet for the God and his worshippers during which Yaho determines destinies for the year to come. There are references to sacrifices of lambs and sheep, bowls filled with wine, and music of lyres and flutes. These songs were to be sung at the autumn harvest festival and the God they invoke is called Yaho or Adonay. They stand side by side in the papyrus, connected by a common theme. One of them bears a close resemblance to Psalm 20. The Israelite psalms are also in Aramaic, though several irregularities show they were originally in Hebrew. The scribes of the scroll used Egyptian Demotic script to write texts in the Aramaic language. Recent image of Papyrus Amherst 63, Column 11. They provide a unique insight into the beliefs and practices of the early Israelites.Įarly image of Papyrus Amherst 63, Column 11. It is one of the most spectacular discoveries in ancient Near Eastern studies of recent years – an Egyptian papyrus from the mid-fourth century BCE containing three psalms that originated in the Kingdom of Israel before the fall of Samaria (722 BCE).

Three Israelite Psalms in an Ancient Egyptian Papyrus By Karel van der Toorn

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