Letter written in Aramaic, 407 BC. Papyrus, written on both sides. The Berlin State Museums, P_13495 © Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, The Berlin State Museums, SPK.
Piecing Together History: Ancient Texts of Elephantine Island, Egypt
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Elephantine Island, located on the Nile along Egypt’s southern border, has a well-documented, 4,000-year cultural history. Archaeologists have discovered thousands of documents written in many languages and scripts that shed light on the everyday life of the island's multi-ethnic, multi-religious community. Egyptologist Verena Lepper provides a close look at this amazing collection and the collaborative project to process and study it. She then reveals new insights about migration and integration of peoples in the ancient world.
Prof. Dr. Verena Lepper is the curator for the Egyptian and Oriental Papyrus Collection of the Egyptian Museum of Berlin, Germany, and honorary professor at Humboldt University of Berlin. She oversees a collection of approximately 30,000 objects in ten different languages and scripts and has managed several exhibition and research projects in Germany and abroad. Her current research focuses on the project "Localizing 4000 Years of Cultural History: Texts and Scripts from Elephantine Island in Egypt," supported by a grant from the European Research Council.