Fragment of an Account concerning Mowers
Fragmentary account concerning land workers
One text, 3 sources · Trismegistos-Text 1810
Fragment of an account of wages for cutters and diggers TM 1810Philadelphia? (Arsinoites)261 BCE – 229 BCE
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 fragmentary account of payments to farm labourers, recording wages for a team of eight workers cutting (probably mowing or pruning) for three days and for a group of diggers. It dates to the mid-3rd century BC and probably comes from Philadelphia in the Arsinoite nome (Fayum).
In English machine translation
[recto]
[…]
cuttings (?) of the […] 8 drachmas.
And to the workers cutting the cutting, being 8, for 3 days, 6 drachmas.
And to those digging (?), these being 4
[…]
[…]
[verso]
42, 199 drachmas 2 obols
156 drachmas […]
The Greek kopē ("cutting") may refer to mowing hay or cutting wood or reeds; the records describe the workers as mowers. The verso figures appear to be running totals.
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 an Account concerning Mowers). 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.col.4.97
[r] [… ? lines lost …] κοπὰς τοῦ […] δραχμαὶ η. καὶ ἐργάταις τοῖς κόπτουσιν τὴν κοπὰν οὖσιν η ἐφʼ ἡμέρας γ δραχμαὶ ϛ. καὶ τοῖς σκάπτουσιν ?, τούτοις οὖσιν δ …[…]…[…] [… ? lines lost …] [v] μβ ρϙθ διώβολον δραχμαὶ ρνϛ …