The Elephantine papyri again

THE ELEPHANTINE PAPYRI make a second appearance in the news this week, this time a cameo in a Jewish Weekly article on the ketubah (marriage contract) exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York: (The State Of The Art Of The Jewish Marriage Contract ):

The earliest known Jewish marriage contract dates to the fifth century BCE, to the Ancient Egyptian area of Elphantine, explains Sharon Liberman Mintz, curator of Jewish Art at the JTS Library, as well as curator of the current Jewish Museum exhibition. Perhaps fittingly, then, the oldest example in the current exhibition also comes from Egypt — from the early 12th century CE. As if to demonstrate continuity amid change, this fragile fragment, which is scripted in ink and gold paint on parchment, with a scattering of simple geometric designs, echoes phrases found some 700 years later in a decidedly more elaborately decorated ketubah on display, this one from 1790 in Yemen. And so sumptuous are some Italian Renaissance designs that the same ketubah would be “re-used” by other couples; they would cut away the text in the center and paste in a new one, leaving those floridly intricate borders intact.

Related post from 2004 here. Other past posts that deal with the Elephantine papyri are here, here, here, here, and here.