Els papirs arameus d'Elefantina: Religió i culte d'una comunitat jueva preexílica i prebíblica

The island of Elephantine is located in the north of the first Nile cataract, oppositethe old city called Sun in imperial Aramaic. This ancient island of the Nile becamefamous among Semitists and archaeologists for the discovery in the early twentiethcentury of Aramaic papyri dated from the VI-V century BC. These Aramaicdocuments inform us that, under the rule of the Achaemenid Empire from 525BC, Elephantine became the centre of the Persian military command in Egypt.A community of mercenary soldiers lived there, composed of military regiments(Aram. degalim דגלים ) of Jewish soldiers (Aram. hilâ Yehudâ חילא יהודה ). The aim ofthis paper is to offer an updated overview of the religion and the pantheon of theJewish community that lived on the island as a military garrison, as seen throughthe papyri and ostraka that were found in Elephantine at the beginning of the 20thcentury.