This volume includes ten new studies, most of which were originally presented at the 14th World Congress of Jewish Studies, held in Jerusalem in 2005. The studies all deal with the changes that occurred in the Land of Israel during the Persian and early Hellenistic periods, from the 6th through the 4th centuries BCE. For convenience, the studies are divided into three categories: archaeological, epigraphic and historical, though many of them are actually more interdisciplinary. Most of them deal with either the province of Judah, Idumea or the interaction between the two, although a couple of them examine other parts of the country as well. A major focus of several of the papers is different aspects of the newly published "Makkedah ostraca" and their meaning.  

Table of Contents:
Yigal Levin: Forward and Introduction I. Archaeological Studies: 1. Einat Ambar-Armon and Amos Kloner (Dept. of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University): Archaeological Evidence of Links between the Aegean World and the Land of Israel in the Persian Period. 2. Avraham Faust (Dept. of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University): Settlement Dynamics and Demographic Fluctuations in Judah from the late Iron Age to the Hellenistic Period and the Archaeology of Persian Period Yehud. 3. Diana Edelman (Dept. Biblical Studies, Sheffield University): Settlement Patterns in Persian-Era Yehud. 4. Rona S. Avissar, Joe Uziel and Aren M. Maeir (Dept. of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University; The Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project): Tell es-Safi/Gath during the Persian Period II. Epigraphic Studies: 5. Hanan Eshel (Dept. of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University): Hellenism in the Land of Israel from the Fifth to the Second Centuries BCE in Light of Semitic Epigraphy. 6. Bezalel Porten and Ada Yardeni (Dept. of Jewish History, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem): Makkedah and the Storehouse in the Idumean Ostraca. 7. Esther Eshel (Dept. of Bible, Bar-Ilan University): Two Aramaic Ostraca from Mareshah. III. Historical Studies: 8. Lisbeth S. Fried (Dept. of Near Eastern Studies, University of Michigan): From Xeno-Philia to -Phobia  - Jewish Encounters with the Other. 9. Ian Stern (Archaeological Seminars, Jerusalem): The Population of Persian Period Idumea According to the Ostraca: A Study of Ethnic Boundaries and Ethogenesis. 10. Yigal Levin (The College of Judea and Samaria, Ariel, and the Depts. of Jewish History and Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University): The Southern Frontier of Yehud and the Creation of Idumea.