The Persian administrative process in view of an Elephantine ʾAršāma decree ( TAD A6.2)

This article begins with a study on the meaning of ṬʿM “decree” in Persian period Aramaic documentary sources from Egypt and on the format of the official decree genre. The article then turns to a study on the manuscript features of an ʾAršāma decree known from Elephantine, EM Pap. no. 3432 = J. 43469 (TAD A6.2). The goal is to shed light on the opaque processes of the Persian administration. It is argued that the various signatories on the manuscript provide evidence of the various administrative levels present in the Egyptian province, and a reconstruction of the transmission of the document through the various levels of administration is proposed. This social and historical study ends with implications for reconsidering the function of other high level administrative documents

Ancient history · Decree · Epistemology · Linguistics · Persian · Political science · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Ancient Near East History · Archaeology and Historical Studies · History · Law · Philosophy