| 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. 23 (MS 1057) |
| 1 papyrus ; 9.3 x 5.1 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, which ends with the word kurion. Of these, 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 not
containing the word cheirogr(a)th(on). For other documents which do not contain this
word, see papyri numbers 3,19,23,42,43,62,75,80,87. (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 Maecenas; Agriculture; 24th cleruchy; Receipt; Documentary; Papyrus |
| Antoninus Caesar; Mystharion son of Keras; Maecenas (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.