Fragment of agricultural account
A fragment of an agricultural account.
One text, 3 sources · Trismegistos-Text 1355
Account of workers employed on dyke-enclosed fields TM 1355Kharabet el Gerza (ancient Philadelphia)256 - 248 B.C.
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 →
A fragment of an account of agricultural labour from the Zenon archive, recording numbers of workers assigned to tasks such as clearing chicory, weeding barley land and irrigating in dyke-enclosed basins, with their wages. It comes from Philadelphia in the Arsinoite nome, 256-248 BC.
In English machine translation
[… lines lost …]
[…] … […]
[…] for the first [dyke-enclosure, the one to the north],
20 workers, of whom: for those clearing out the chicory (?), 10 workers; and for those weeding the barley-bearing land, 5 workers; and for those […] the worm-eaten (land), 5 workers; total 20, at [3/4 obol] each, total 2 drachmas 3 obols.
To Stephanos, for the 2nd dyke-enclosure, the one to the north, workers
[15, of whom:] for those clearing out the chicory (?), 5 workers;
[…] for those irrigating in […]
[…] 5; total 15.
A perichoma is a basin of land surrounded by a dyke. The rate per worker is restored; 20 workers at 3/4 obol gives 15 obols, matching the total of 2 drachmas 3 obols. Pikris is a bitter weed, perhaps chicory.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Fragment of agricultural account). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.
p.cair.zen.4.59728
[… ? lines lost …] […]…αναι…[…] […] εἰς τὸ πρῶτον περίχωμα τὸ πρὸς βορρᾶν σώματα κ ὧν τοῖς ἀνακαθαίρουσι τὴν πικρίδα σώματα ι καὶ τοῖς βοτανίζουσι τὴν κριθοφόρον σώματα ε καὶ τοῖς β[…]… […]ι τε τὴν σκωληκόβρωτον σώματα ε γίνονται κ ἀνὰ ἡμιωβέλιον ὀβολοῦ τέταρτον γίνονται δραχμαὶ …