Estimate of the cost of painting windows in the king's lodging TM 1471Philadelphia3rd century BC
The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 4 records across 3 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →
A cost estimate for encaustic painting of the windows in the king's lodging, specifying colours (red ochre, blue, violet, wood-colour, bitumen) for different rooms and the price per window, with a list of materials needed. It comes from the Zenon archive, mid-3rd century BC, probably Philadelphia in the Fayum.
In English machine translation
The 'king's lodging' was a residence prepared for a royal visit. Several architectural terms (kanonotai, plintheia, otia, kombalia) are technical and their exact meaning is uncertain.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Estimate of the cost of painting windows). 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.4.59663
p.cair.zen.5.59847
[1] ἐν τῶι καταλύματι τοῦ βασιλέως· τὰς θυρίδας τὰς ἐν τοῖς παροδίοις τοίχοις οὔσας κανονωτὰς καὶ τὰς εἰς τὴν αὐλὴν βλεπούσας γείνονται εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ λη ἐγκαῦσαι τὰ πλάγια μίλτωι, τὰ δʼ ἀντία κυάνωι, τὰ δὲ πλινθεῖα ξυλοειδεῖ, τὰ δʼ ὠτία τῶν ἐχουσῶν ἀσφάλτωι· σὺν ἀνηλώματι καὶ μισθῶ…