OPES – Oslo Papyri Electronic System

Background and Physical Properties

Material:

Papyrus

Connections:

–

Size:

16 x 20.4 cm

Lines:

10

Publication side:

Verso (Recto: P.Oslo II 17)

Palaeographic description:

Experienced personal hand with few ligatures; mostly separated letters; some problems with distribution of ink (perhaps due to the poor quality of papyrus on the verso); scribal corrections (deletions and interlinear additions); spiritus asper added above and slightly to the right of the sixteen grapheme at l. 2 to indicate that it should be interpreted as a relative pronoun.

State of preservation:

The sheet shows some physical damage (vertical cracks and a break across the middle). There is some loss and misalignment of fibres in the central area of the fragment. The papyrus underwent conservation in 2003 (Petrie Museum, University College) to remove glue that had run over onto the sheet from the tape used to close the glass. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The text is in a good state of preservation. The documents contained on each side of the fragment are almost complete. The top edge is preserved with an upper margin of 2 cm. The lines reach all the way to the right edge (also preserved) giving no room for a right margin. The upper layer of the left margin is missing and the visible lower layer is partly damage, but the edge may be visible to the left of ll. 5-6: 2 cm. The bottom edge is damaged; preserved blank space below the text: 7 cm.

Content

Date:

140-141 CE

Origin:

Oxyrhynchite (or Prosopite? cf. recto) , Egypt

Language:

Greek

Genre:

Documentary

Author:

Unknown

Title / Type of text:

Draft receipt for payment in advance for wine / Draft receipt

Content:

The issuer of the receipt has received an unspecified amount of money and will in return give an unspecified amount of wine, in connection with either a regular sale in advance or a cession of property in payment for a previously existing debt. The scribal corrections (deletions and interlinear additions) and the lack of names as well as concrete amounts suggest that we are dealing with a draft version of the receipt.

Subjects:

Draft Receipt Vineyard Wine Payment Money Interest

Named people:

Theon

Named places:

Monimou

English translation:

I acknowledge to have received from you by cash payment the price of tetrachoa jars of wine of a said quantity for which I will provide empty jars and I will give to you in the month of Hathyr of the coming fifth year of Antoninus Caesar our lord, [ [in fruit dryery] ] by wine measure of Theon, your nephew, near village of Monimou, in his fruit dryery, of the produce of the [ [fourth year] ] present fourth year of the vineyard of the same nephew of yours which I hold on lease, from whichever vat you choose, without delay. If not, I will pay to you in full the double price at that time with interest of two drachmas, you having the right of execution upon me and all my property. My personal signature is valid. (translation by Gina Othelie Green)

Provenance:

El-Bahnasa, Egypt

Acquisition:

Purchased in Fayum on 22 March 1928 (source: Leiv Amundsen’s diary, whereas H. I. Bell’s report has 28 March as the date of purchase) by Enoch E. Petersen and Leiv Amundsen from natives of El-Bahnasa. This transaction was part of a common purchase of several lots of papyri, organized by the British Museum through the intermediary of H. I. Bell, and distributed to the universities of Princeton, Oslo, Michigan and Columbia. This papyrus is identified as lot I, 1 in Bell’s “Report on the papyri purchased in 1927-8.”

Acquisition year:

1928

Editions

• Eitrem, S. and Amundsen, L., P.Oslo II, 1931, pp. 103-105 (no. 43)

Further Literature

Catalogues

TM 21520

Translations

• Jakab, É. (2009). Risikomanagement beim weinkauf: Periculum und Praxis im imperium Romanum (Vol. 99). C. H. Beck. German translation of ll. 1-7 on p. 26 n. 66.

Discussions

• Hombert, M., & Préaux, C. (1939). Les papyrus de la Fondation Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth, V. Chronique d'Egypte, 14(27), 161-170. On the buyer’s provision of recipients (κοῦφα) to accommodate wine bought; unusually it is the seller who promises to bring the recipients in P.Oslo II 43; see p. 168, commentary on l. 15 of SB VI 8263 = P.Brux. I 19.
• Hombert, M., & Préaux, C. (1946). Les papyrus de la Fondation Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth, XI. Chronique d'Egypte, 21(41), 121-126. On ἀποδώσω (l. 2) meaning ‘deliver’ rather than ‘return’ in sales contracts of wheat and wine; see p. 124, commentary on l. 8 of SB VI 9051 = SB XII 15596.
• Sijpesteijn, P. J. (1979). Three papyri from the Michigan collection. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 33, 244–253. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20185640. On P.Oslo II 43’s unusual delivery of wine during Hathyr month (ll. 2-3); see p. 250 n. 14 (cf. Jakab’s (2009) explanation on pp. 26-27).
• Mayerson, P. (2000). A note on P. Col. X 280.14: κενώματα μέτρῳ οἰνικῷ κοτυλῶν δεκαεννέα. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 132, 255–256. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20190724. On the rare measure μέτρῳ οἰνικῷ on ll. 3-4; see p. 255 n. 3.
• Jakab, É. (2009). Risikomanagement beim weinkauf: Periculum und Praxis im imperium Romanum (Vol. 99). C. H. Beck. On winemaking. Exceptionally, the wine in P.Oslo II 43 is promised delivered after fermentation in Hathyr month; see pp. 26-27 and 138.
• Gronewald, M., Lundon, J., Maresch, K., Schenke, G., & Schmitz, P. (2013). 543. Aufstellung über Wein. In M. Gronewald, John Lundon, Klaus Maresch, Gesa Schenke, and P. Schmitz (Eds.), Kölner Papyri (P. Köln) Band 13 (pp. 199-202). Schöningh. On the ἡλιαστήριον (l. 4); see p. 200, commentary on l. 2 of P.Köln 13 543.
• Reggiani, N. (2016). Le unità di misura dei liquidi nei papiri: questioni di varietà, astrazione, uso. Marburger Beiträge zur Antiken Handels-, Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, 33, 131-156. On the μέτρῳ οἰνικῷ (ll. 3-4) being a standard measurement unit; see pp. 152 and 155-156.
• van Minnen, P. (2016). An antichretic loan from early Roman Alexandria revisited (BGU IV 1053). Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 199, 144–154. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26603705. Questions the reading διδραχμιαίοις on l. 8; see p. 146 n. 12.