| Grain receipt |
| Receipt given to the sitologoi (village grain collectors) by a farmer for an advance
of seed-corn issued to enable him to sow the lands assigned him. The distribution
was made in the late autumn, and probably at the rate of one artaba of grain for each
aroura of land. These advances of grain were repaid by farmers after the harvest,
usually in the month of Pauni (May 26 - June 24), although sometimes in the preceding
(Pachon) or following (Epeiph) months, together with about 23% of the original advance
as interest and to cover expenses of collection. (Goodspeed 1902, 9) |
|
| P.Kar.Goodsp. 55 (MS 1057) |
| 1 papyrus ; 11.2 x 4.5 cm |
| For the most part, the receipts were rolled together in packets. In one case, the
pieces had been held together by a string running through the center of each one,
as though for filing, and the bit of brown thread still held 12 of them insecurely
together. From the top of the pile to the bottom, this included numbers 72,25,40,47,10,53,82,70,77,45,18,39.
(Goodspeed 1902, 3) |
| On recto: 3 lines in Greek |
| Source of description: On recto: grain receipt |
| In general, the receipts are complete and plainly legible. There is a great amount
of abbreviation in the receipts in the hands of almost all the writers. Most were
written hastily and are much abbreviated. As with 54 others of the 91 papyri, this
document begins in an official hand. Unlike most others, however, there is no second
hand on this document. This may have been a case where the farmer was illiterate
and had no one to receipt for him, as Didymus, son of Sarapion, for example receipted
for his neighbor Sambas, son of Ptolemaeus. (These men farmed in the same cleruchy,
see nos. 60-61.) (For other examples like this, see P.Kar.Goodsp. 5,30,42,52,55,72,74)
Of these 55 papyri in an official hand, all except 1 are written across the fibers.
(Another 12 of the 91 papyri are also written in this manner.) The determining element
with this scribe was probably not so much the fiber relation, however, as the shape
of the papyrus, for he prefers to make his line parallel with the longer side of his
papyrus. (Goodspeed 1902, 2-5) |
| Arsinoite nome
|
| Greek |
| (Mid) IInd century A.D.
|
| Bar code: 68652980. This papyrus is one of 91 belonging to the group MS No. 1057.
Goodspeed divides the papyri into 3 groups, those having a long introductory formula,
one with a more exact formula, and those with the formula reduced to its simplest
form. This document falls into the first group. It is further identified as containing
the word cheirogr(a)th(on). For other documents which contain this word, see papyri
numbers 1,2,5,6,8,9,10,13,14,15,16,17,18,21,25,26,27,28,29,30,33,34,35,36,39,41,44,47,52,53,54,55,56,58,63,64,68,71,72,74,79,82,83,85,86,88,89.
(Goodspeed 1902, 7) Of Goodspeed's 91 papyri containing grain receipts from Karanis,
88 are dated to Antoninus' 22nd year and one to his 15th year. Because farmers would
apply for their seed at about the same time (autumn), nearly all of the collection
are from a single season in one year, the 26th of Athur in the 20th year of Antoninus
( = November 22, 156 A.D.). (Goodspeed 1902, 2) The usual letters represent the numbers,
while a horizontal line generally stands above the cleruchy number. The fractions
are arranged with numerators of 1, as usual, but 1/2 and 1/4 are often combined.
(Goodspeed 1902, 6) |
| Location: Regenstein |
| Pub. status: Published: recto |
| Karanis; Kerkesoucha; property of Severus; Agriculture; 56th cleruchy; Receipt; Documentary; Papyrus |
| Antoninus Caesar; Heras son of Onnophris; Severus (see Geographica) |
 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License. |
© Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.