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The dual ethnic identity of the Jews of Elephantine (5th century BCE) has long puzzled scholars. In the legal documents, the Jews are sometimes identified as ‘Jew’ and at others as ‘Aramean’. In order to discover the logic that underlies this practice, the author compares the ethnic identity tags of the Jews on the island with those applied to members of the local Caspian community. The comparison demonstrates that ‘Aramean’ did indeed serve as an ethnic designation of the Jews—applied by others and by themselves. The reference is neither to language nor to tribe, but rather to territory. ‘Arameans’ were inhabitants of Aram, that is, Syria. The Jews did have a double identity: They were Syrians since they came from the satrapy of Beyond-the-River, i.e., Syria; they were Jews on account of their more narrow regional and religious identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents information on the discovery of the Jewish temple at the Elephantine Island. In 1967, a German team started work at the southern end of Elephantine Island with the aim of identifying the town populated by the Jewish community and its Egyptian temples over the centuries. Their excavations uncovered an Aramaic quarter of the 27th Dynasty, which equates to that of the Jewish colony. Eventually in 1997, at the heart of this village, they found a piece of tiled flooring. They identified this as the floor of the Jewish temple. Parts of the walls of the temple and the surrounding courtyard were identified. INSET: The Elephantine Papyri.