This important volume contains 170 documents from the Egyptian border fortresses of the Elephantine and Syene (Aswan), which yielded hundreds of papyri in Hieratic, Demotic, Aramaic, Greek, Latin and Coptic, spanning a period of 3000 years. The documents include letters from legal documents and accounts from family and other archives, and are thus an invaluable source of knowledge of epistolography, law, society, religion, language and onomastic in this unique site and over this long period of time to scholars of varied disciplines. The volume contains five sections, each containing carefully translated and extensively annotated documents of one language group. Excellent cross-referencing allows the user to trace forerunners and successors. Each section is preceded by an introduction, and the book closes with a glossary of technical terms in five languages.

'"Porten has once again produced a most useful tool in our understanding of the ancient Egyptian-Hebrew Diaspora, and we are in debt to his impressive work."' Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, "Journal of Biblical Literature", 2002. '"This is a groundbreaking work, intensely in its conception, comprehensive in scope, a priceless resource for students of law, society, and history. I wish I had written it."' Joseph Meleze Modrzejewski, Professeur a la Sorbonne-Universite de Paris I. Directeur d'Etudes de Papyrologie et Histoire des Droits de l'Antiquite, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris. '"The immense care and attention expended in the project is evident on every page. Many readers will be grateful to have the Greek and especially the Egyptian writings available in a reliable English translation."' L.L. Grabbe, "Society for Old Testament Study", 1997. '"Bezalel Porten and those who cooperated with him on the production of this magnificent collection deserve highest appreciation for their demanding work. It will be effectively used for various purposes, and it can serve as model for similar enterprises."' Stanislav Segert, "Archiv Orientalni", 1997.