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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 19760

Five-year lease of unirrigated land at Enseu TM 19760Hermopolites

The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 2 records across 2 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →

A lease in which Menas, a farmer from the village of Enseu in the Hermopolite nome, takes on a plot of about 1 5/8 arouras of unirrigated land for five years from the twelfth indiction. He promises a wheat rent delivered to the lessors' house in Hermopolis, plus money, cheeses and chaff, and the deed is signed by a scribe for the illiterate lessee, three witnesses and the notary Menas.

In English machine translation

[recto] [… lines lost …] from the village of [Enseu in the Hermopolite nome. I acknowledge,] I, the aforementioned Menas, farmer, [willingly] and of my own accord, that I have leased [from you] for a five-year period reckoned [from the crops of the] coming, with God, twelfth indiction, the [arouras belonging] to you, one and a half and an eighth aroura […] more or less, unirrigated, lying [in the place] called G…xia in the fields of the village […] for sowing and storing of crops [of whatever I choose], for each aroura by measurement a rent [each] year, for the inundated land, of wheat […] artabas, [and for the uninundated land], which may it not happen, one third of the aforesaid [rent; which] rent, new, clean, sieved, [by the] Athenaean [measure], I will pay and measure out [to you in the month] […] and I will deliver the same rent [to your house] in Hermopolis with my own animals [and at my own expense] at the time of the payment of the public taxes, [and] […] one value (?) of silver, 1,000 (?) talents […] and 20 satisfactory cheeses and […] and 2 baskets of wheat chaff. [The lease is valid] and secure, and being asked I acknowledged. I, Aurelius Menas […], have leased as stated above. I, Aurelius Thomas […], [having been asked,] wrote on his behalf since he does not know letters. [†] […] from Hermopolis, I bear witness to the lease, having heard it from [the party. †] […] from Hermopolis, I bear witness to the lease, having heard it from [the party. †] […] […] son of Ammonios, from Hermopolis, I bear witness to the lease, having heard it [from the party. †] † Through me, Menas, notary. ☧ ☧ ☧ Choiak […] [verso] […] … Apa Menas, farmer, from the village of Enseu in the Hermopolite nome.

The beginning with the lessors' names is lost. The indiction date and Byzantine formulary point to the 6th-7th century AD; 'unirrigated' land paying one third rent if not flooded is a standard clause.

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

DDbDP-text Full record →

p.lond.5.1770

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · Hermopolites

[r] [… ? lines lost …] ἀπὸ κώμης Ἐνσεῦ τοῦ Ἑρμουπολίτου νομοῦ. ὁμολογῶ ἐγὼ ὁ προγεγραμμένος Μηνᾶς γεωργὸς ἑκουσίως καὶ αὐθαιρέτως μεμισθῶσθαι παρʼ ὑμῶν ἐπὶ πενταετῆ χρόνον λογιζόμενονἀπὸ καρπῶν τῆς σὺν Θεῷ εἰσιούσηςδωδεκάτης ἰνδικτίονος τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν ὑμῖν ἄρουραν μίαν ἥμισυ ὄγδο…