Padua Aramaic Papyri

The Padua Aramaic papyri are a group of three Aramaic papyri thought to be from the 400s BCE, found in a collection of antiquities in the Italian city of Padua. The papyri are unprovenanced, but are thought to have been from Elephantine, which would make them the first Elephantine papyri and ostraca to have been discovered (although published much later than most). They were acquired by Giovanni Belzoni in c.1815, together with a demotic letter; Belzoni presented them to the Musei Civici di Padova in 1819.

They were first published in 1936 by Luigi Gaudenzio in a group of unrelated documents; they first received scholarly attention after their 1960 publication by Edda Bresciani. They are currently in the Musei Civici di Padova, and are also known as TSSI II 28.

They are considered to form part of the corpus of Elephantine papyri and ostraca; Bresciani wrote as follows:Bresciani, Edda. "PAPIRI ARAMAICI EGIZIANI DI EPOCA PERSIANA PRESSO IL MUSEO CIVICO DI PADOVA." Rivista Degli Studi Orientali 35 (1960): 11-24. Accessed August 25, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41922886 "La lettera indicata in questa pubblicazione come PAP. I mostra che il destinatario si trovava a Elefantina, giacché inizia con i saluti al tempio di Yaho a Elefantina. Questo, se non è assolutamente decisivo per affermare che Elefantina è anche il luogo di ritrovamento, lo rende tuttavia probabile. Il PAP. III suggerisce ancora Elefantina, poiché vi si legge .... e ..... è il termine usato comunemente nei papiri aramaici di Elefantina per indicare il tempio di Yaho nell'isola. In PAP. II è menzionato un ......, che porta quindi un nome proprio egiziano, frequente e tipico di Elefentina dove Khnum era il dio locale. Su queste basi, proporrei, naturalmente senza assoluta certezza, Elefantina, come il possibile luogo d'origine, comune, dei papiri."

The letter referred to in this publication as ''Papyrus I'' shows that the recipient was in Elephantine, as he begins with greetings at the temple of Yaho in Elephantine. This, if it is not absolutely decisive for affirming that Elephantine is also the place of discovery, nevertheless makes it probable. The ''Papyrus III'' still suggests Elephantine, since it reads .... and ..... is the term commonly used in the Aramaic Elephantine papyri to indicate the temple of Yaho on the island. In ''Papyrus II'' is mentioned a ......, which therefore bears an Egyptian proper name, frequent and typical of Elephantine where Khnum was the local god. On this basis, I would propose, naturally without absolute certainty, Elephantine, as the possible common place of origin of the papyri.

Bibliography

* Bresciani, Edda. "PAPIRI ARAMAICI EGIZIANI DI EPOCA PERSIANA PRESSO IL MUSEO CIVICO DI PADOVA." Rivista Degli Studi Orientali 35 (1960): 11-24. Accessed August 25, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41922886.
* Fitzmyer, Joseph A. "The Padua Aramaic Papyrus Letters." Journal of Near Eastern Studies 21, no. 1 (1962): 15-24. Accessed August 25, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/543549.

Notes

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5th-century BC works
Aramaic Egyptian papyri