ABSTRACT
The challenge faced when analyzing Jewish archaeology is how to separate specifically "Jewish" material remains from those of other cultures. The archaeological objects themselves are mute, so historians are faced with the arduous task of correlating these archaeological remains with textual sources, such as the historical records from surrounding empires, epigraphic and papyrological sources, and biblical and rabbinic monographs. More concrete evidence for the emergence of northern Israel is found in the first half of the ninth century, when the Omride dynasty, centered at the northern city of Samaria, surfaced as a prominent political entity. The Jewish community in Egypt would also prosper for several centuries under Egyptian, Persian, and later Greek and Roman rule. Aramaic and Demotic papyri found on the island of Elephantine, near the modern city of Aswan, provide fascinating details about the daily life and religious practices of the Jewish community in Egypt in the fifth century.
