Elephantine

   Greek name for the Egyptian Abu, modern Aswan, capital of the first nome of Upper Egypt. The site located on an island in the Nile marked the southern limit of the border of Egypt proper and was the main entrepot for goods imported from the south, notably ivory, from which its name in Egyptian and Greek derives. Remains have been found from the Predynastic Period (NaqadaIII) to the Roman Period. The principal deity worshipped at the main temple was the ram-headed god Khnum, together with the goddesses Satis andAnukis. There was a smaller temple devoted to Satis erected by Thutmose III and Hatshepsut. The important shrine of the deified Heqaib is also located here. Rock tombs from the Old Kingdom to the New Kingdom are located on the west bank of the Nile at Qubbet el-Hawa. The Nilometer records the levels of the flood and dates from the Roman Period. Interesting records of a Jewish colony during the Persian Period have been discovered here. Elephantine was excavated by German archaeologists from 1906–1907, by a French team from 1907–1909, by Egyptian archaeologists in 1932 and from 1946–1947, and by a Swiss archaeologist from 1953–1954, and it has been systematically excavated by a GermanSwiss expedition since 1969. The nearby tombs were examined by a second German expedition from 1960–1973.

   See also Nubia.

Historical Dictionary Of Ancient Egypt by Morris L. Bierbrier