The surviving end of a lease of a vineyard from Hermopolis, in which the lessee Onnophris undertakes trellis work, trenching, irrigation and weeding, and promises the lessor Aphrodisia annual payments in dates, loaves, oil and cash. It is dated to the reign of Antoninus Pius, on Mesore 27.
In English machine translation
[… lines lost …]
[…] I will dig (?) […]
I will do the reed-work each year, from new, twenty five-post trellis frames, and the propping of the rest, I, Aphrodisia, supplying reed and ropes; and I will make with the trench-spade each year twenty trenches,
and I will carry out the water-raising from the new moon of Pharmouthi until the coming irrigation from the foot, with the shadufs belonging to the vineyard, providing at my own expense the dyke-worker too; all the fruit trees in the vineyard belonging to me the lessee, from which I will give each year 2 artabas of dry pressed dates and each year the fruit of one date palm, by choice,
and one basket of 1 artaba capacity; at the vintage festival 10 pairs of loaves, 2 kotylai of oil, 2 drachmas for relish. I have for the service of the works a water-raising bucket (?), and I will give each year one load of pruning wood, and after the term I will hand over the vineyard clean of rush, reed, dog's-tooth grass and all weeds, and with the mud walls standing.
Onnophris, aged 45, scar on a finger.
Year […]2 of Antoninus Caesar the lord, Mesore 27.
The phrase 'I, Aphrodisia, supplying' is grammatically odd in a text otherwise spoken by the lessee; it likely means the lessor Aphrodisia supplies reed and ropes. The word read as 'ἄμην' (rendered bucket) 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 Contratto d’affitto). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.