Lease [III AD]
Fragmentary lease of a date-palm orchard
One text, 3 sources · Trismegistos-Text 30719
Lease of a date-palm orchard TM 30719From Oxhyrhynchos200 CE – 299 CE
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 →
Fragment of a lease of a date-palm orchard from Oxyrhynchus, 3rd century AD. It mentions rent in pressed dates, customary gifts of grapes, figs and fresh dates, irrigation and labour obligations, rebuilding of a wall with bricks, and a guarantee that the lessees bear no risk.
In English machine translation
[… lines lost …]
[…] … […]
[…] of the public (taxes?) … […]
[…] of pressed dates, artabas […]
[…] half an artaba […]
[…] … […]
[…] … the half, and likewise to enjoy the fruits […]
[…] Thoth 1, 5th intercalary day, as gifts (xenia) each year, of silver drachmas … […]
[…] is a small basket containing a small bunch of choice grapes […]
[…] -ty, 30 figs, of fresh dates … […]
[…] and from the gourds and cucumber-beds there […]
[…] until the tenth of Tybi, you providing […]
[…] for ten days, and for the irrigations the same […]
[…] … of wages for two days from the … […]
[…] and for the rebuilding of the southern […]
[…] … bricks …, you providing […]
[…] we performing the service […]
[…] all free from every risk. And the lease being guaranteed […]
[…] … all the works of the orchard and […]
[…] carrying off the produce that results […]
[…] in the month of Phaophi, and the … […]
[…] … […]
[… lines lost …]
Xenia were customary small gifts of produce owed by lessees to the landlord at festivals, here apparently on intercalary days and 1 Thoth (New Year).
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Lease of a Date - palm Orchard). 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.8.232
[… ? lines lost …] […]…ος …[…] […]δημοσίων θερι…[…] […]φοίνικος πατητοῦ ἀρταβ[…] […]ου ἀρτάβης ἥμισυ[…] […]κουστομινω[…] […]…ου τὸ ἥμισυ καὶ ὁμοίως καρποῦσθαι[…] […]Θὼθ α ἐπαγομένων ε ὡς ἐξενίαυτα κατʼ ἔτος ἀργυρίου δραχμὰς …[…] […]ἐστὶν σφυρίδιον ἔχον βοτρύδιον σταφυλῶν ἐκλέκτων…