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One text, 3 sources · Trismegistos-Text 12159

Contract for planting and watering mulberry trees on dykes TM 12159Tebtynis, Polemonos meris, Arsinoite nome, province of EgyptAugust-September 30 A.D.

The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 3 records across 3 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →

Subscription to a work contract in which Harpaesis son of Panorses agrees to plant and water 150 mulberry trees on the dykes around 300 arouras of land for a wage of 144 drachmas, 60 paid in advance by the slave Phileros. It was written for him by the priest-official Marepsemis because Harpaesis was illiterate, at Tebtynis in the Arsinoite nome in AD 30.

In English machine translation

Year sixsix(?) From the roll (?) I, Harpaesis son of Panorses, Persian of the Epigone, acknowledge that I am obliged to plant on the dykes around the 300 arouras in the woodland (?), from the present month Sebastos of the seventeenth year of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, because I have been engaged on these terms, and that I have received at once, out of the agreed wage of 144 silver drachmas to be given, on account, 60 silver drachmas, received by me at once from hand to hand from Phileros the slave; the remaining 84 silver drachmas I shall receive monthly in proportion from the month Mecheir; and I shall deliver 150 living (?) mulberry trees on the aforesaid dykes, which I shall also water five times a month. If I do not deliver as stated above, I shall of necessity pay back the aforesaid 144 silver drachmas and the interest as stated above. Marepsemis son of Marepsemis, lesonis, wrote for him because he does not know letters.

The opening lines are an abandoned start of the contract body, apparently left off after a mistake in the second word. A lesonis was a temple administrator; 'Persian of the Epigone' is a legal status label for contracting parties.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Contract for Work). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.

APIS-papyrus Full record →

Contract for Work

Papyri.info — APIS (Advanced Papyrological Information System) — papyri · P.Mich.inv. 636 · August-September 30 A.D. · Tebtynis, Polemonos meris, Arsinoite nome, province of Egypt

Subscription to a contract by which Harpaesis, son of Panorses, agrees to plant mulberry trees on the dykes around 300 arourai of land, and to provide up to 150 trees, which he agrees to water five times a month. At the top of the papyrus, the body of the contract was begun, but …

DDbDP-text Full record →

p.mich.5.349

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · 29. Aug. - 27. Sept. 30 · Arsinoites

ἔτους ἑκκαι ἐκ κολλήματος Ἁρπαῆσις Πανορσήουιος Πέρσης τῆς ἐπιγονῆς ὁμολογῶ ἐπάναγκον φυτεύσειν ἐν τοῖς περὶ τὰς τριακοσίας ἀρούρας χώμασιν ἐν δρυμῷ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐνεστῶτος μηνὸς Σεβαστοῦ τοῦ ἑπτακαιδεκάτου ἔτους Τιβερίου Καίσαρος Σεβαστοῦ, διὰ τὸ ἐπὶ τούτοις γεγράφθαι με, καὶ εἰληφένα…