Potsherds with Aramaic inscriptions.
Persian military garrisons were based on the upper Nile at Elephantine and Syene (near Aswan). One of these documents, drafted on a broken piece of pottery, refers to the travel of goods, people or messages by boat between these two places. Both refer to people with Jewish names. Other documents from Elephantine mention resident Ionians, Carians, Phoenicians and Greeks.
About 475 B.C., probably from Elephantine, Ey