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An ostracon receipt in which Ulpius Cerealis, tax farmer of the sacred gate of Syene, acting through his assistant Pachnoubis, acknowledges payment by Tachnoubis son of Pasenasis and siblings of 4 drachmas 4 1/2 obols for the geometria (survey tax) on a palm grove for the crop of year 2. It is dated 29 January 163 AD, under Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.
The geometria was a tax assessed on the surveyed area of orchards and palm groves; the 'sacred gate' was a customs or toll post whose revenues were farmed out. The scribe first wrote Tybi and corrected it to Mecheir.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Reçu pour la taxe sur la superficie des palmeraies). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.
Οὔλπιος Κερεᾶλις μισθωτὴς ἱερᾶς πύλης Σοήνης διὰ Παχνούβιος βοηθοῦ. διέγραψαν Ταχνοῦβις Πασενάσεως καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ ὑπὲρ γεωμετρίας φοινικῶνος γενήματος β ἔτους δραχμὰς δ τετρώβολον ἡμιωβέλιον. ἔτους γ Ἀντωνίνου καὶ Οὐήρου Καισάρων τῶν κυρίων Μεχεὶρ δ.
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