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This volume publishes 534 new Demotic graffiti recorded at the temple of Isis on Philae Island, presented with drawings and photographs. New editions of 101 of the graffiti that were published by F. Griffith in his Catalogue of the Demotic Papyri in the Dodecaschoenus (1937) are published here. These re-edited texts were mainly chosen because new drawings provided significant new readings from those made by Griffith, or they helped elucidate the scope and meaning of some of the new graffiti by placement. The volume also includes an essay interpreting the role of the graffiti in understanding the political and religious activities at Philae temple during the last centuries of worship of the goddess Isis, mainly by Nubian priests and pilgrims.
All told, this book provides a valuable resource in understanding worship in Egyptian temples at a time when Egypt was becoming Christian. It will be of use to those interested in ancient temples, ancient Egypt, ancient Nubia, and the Christianization of Egypt. It ought to be of more interest to students of the Bible.
Eugene Cruz-Uribe is Professor of History at Indiana University East. He is coauthor (with Jitse H. F. Dijkstra) of Syene I: The Figural and Textual Graffiti from the Temple of Isis at Aswan( 2012) and author of Hibis Temple Project, vol. 3: Graffiti from the Temple Precinct (2008).