«Do we know the Arameans?» (SAA 17, 176). The Use of Ethnonyms in the Aramaic Documents from Egypt

The contribution deals with the question of defining and identifying ethnicity in the multicultural environment of Achaemenid Elephantine, using the apparently most obvious indicator of ethnicity, namely ethnonyms. It focuses in particular on the ambiguous ethnonym “Aramaean”, discussing the term from its very first attestations in Akkadian, and arguing that the label is used in Elephantine to designate arameophones (in particular arameophones serving in the Achaemenid army). The article investigates also proper names, as far as they are related with ethnonyms, in order to understand whether anthroponyms may be used as indicators of ethnicity.