Receipt for a Grain Loan
Description
Object Label: In the fifth century B.C.E., Egypt’s Elephantine Island was home to Egyptians, Persians, and Jews. This document comes from the archive of a Jewish family whose first language was Aramaic rather than Egyptian. It states that in December 402 B.C.E., Ananiah, son of Haggai, borrowed two monthly rations of grain from Pakhnum, son of Besa, an Aramaean with an Egyptian name. This receipt would have been kept by Pakhnum and returned to Ananiah when he repaid the loan. No interest is charged on the loan, but there is a penalty for failing to repay it on the appointed date. Catalogue description: Culture Aramaic Caption: Aramaic. Receipt for a Grain Loan, December, 402 B.C.E.. Papyrus, ink, mud, a: Object: 11 13/16 × 13 3/4 in. (30 × 35 cm) a: Frame: 14 15/16 × 16 1/4 in. (38 × 41.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Theodora Wilbour from the collection of her father, Charles Edwin Wilbour, 47.218.93a-b. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
A rectangular papyrus fragment with extensive handwritten text in a dark ink across the surface; only the top and some edges are preserved.
The image shows a brown papyrus sheet (fragment) photographed against a light background. The surface is covered with dense lines of handwriting that appear to be alphabetic/abbreviated script rather than formal Egyptian hieroglyphs; individual letterforms and word-like units are visible, but no clear royal cartouches, deity iconography, or Egyptian hieroglyphic layout (e.g., sign rows with determinatives) can be confidently identified. There are large losses at the upper edge and irregular tearing along the borders. The text is arranged in horizontal lines throughout the remaining area. No Greek/Coptic/Arabic script is clearly visible, and no hieroglyphic-only inscriptions are apparent. The object is consistent in broad material/handling with a documentary papyrus.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 47.218.93a-b tier-2
- BKM-Object 60732 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.