Four Greek Ostraca from Cairo Museum

Abstract

The paper is an editing four Greek documentary ostraca preserved in Cairo Museum preserved among a large collection, that has been divided into two group ostraca in the third floor of Cairo Museum (D3East). The ostraca have been brought to the museum on January 25th, 1955 from the region of Thebes (specifically from either Elephantine or Syene, as it is sometimes mentioned in some ostraca and as it is mentioned in this paper in O. No. 20b). These four ostraca have been published for the first time. The four ostraca have the same inventory number (S.R.18953). The editor has numbered the two collections into a separate serial number to each group. They date back to: 1- The 23rd year, 21st of Pachon (19 June 158 BCE), 2- the 30th year, the 22nd of Pharmouthi of the reign of Ptolemy IX Soter II (May 3rd 87 BCE), 3- Beginning of 2nd century CE and 4- 2nd century CE in sequence. The first document is O. No. 6b and measures 11.9 cm in width x 12.9 cm in length. It is bilingual and consists of five complete lines (four Greek and one Demotic) that have been written on the recto (convex), while the verso (concave) is blank. It is a Granary Receipt in which two tax-payer acknowledge that they have paid five and one-six artabas of wheat to a sitologos (whose name is illegible). The document has some problematical reading in the proper name in the beginning of line 2 and the proper name in line 4. The second document is O. No. 20b and measures 5.1 cm in width x 8.7 cm in length. It has preserved complete seven lines and the verso is blank. This document mentions clearly in line two that the place to which it belongs (i.e. Syene, modern Aswan). It is uncertain Treasury receipt? Where almost all the parallels with the same or close formula are Treasury receipts. The hand is well-trained and the text is almost legible and clear except for the last word in line 6. In the text, Patapes declares that he paid an amount of money to an official whose name or title is not clear in the text, yet it mostly the banker of the village. The third is O. No. 6a and measures 13 cm in width x 12 cm in length. This potsherd has preserved four complete lines on the recto, while the verso is blank. It is a short Decania List “groups of camel-drivers” which has the number “25” that probably was given to each group of the Decania. The fourth ostracon is O. No. 20a and measures 9.2 cm in width x 6.5 cm in length. It has preserved three complete lines that have been written on the recto and the verso is blank. It is “A person Name!” it is unusual one person's name has been written in ostracon. There are couple of suggestions of the existence of this name: either because of the importance of this person, where he, his patronymic and grandfather’s name were mentioned, or he was a chief of decania “decanos”.