Brooklyn Museum 47.218.89
Document of Wifehood
TAD B.3.03
Metadata
- Collection
- Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York, USA | Brook (Public)
- Genres
-
- Legal (Content)
- Contract
- marriage
- wifehood
- ספר אנתו זי כתב PN (Ancient)
- Language
- Aramaic
- Script
- Aramaic
- Find Type
- Unprovenanced: Explorer Aquisition
- Acquired
- Charles Wilbour [1893]
- Created by
- James D. Moore
- Material
- papyrus
- Text Direction Side 1
- perpendicular (⟂) to the material's lines
- Text Direction Side 2
- parallel (∥) to the material's lines
- Updated by
- James D. Moore, 2026-01-18
- Date (Metadata)
- Gregorian 9.08.-449 [Persian, 5th cent. BCE]
- Date (Other date in text)
- Egyptian 30.viii Art 16 [Persian, 5th cent. BCE]
- Date (Composition in text)
- Babylonian 18.v Art 16 [Persian, 5th cent. BCE]
- References
-
- Lepper, Verena M. et al. . ERC 307762.
- Porten, Bezalel and Yardeni, Ada 1986. TAD B.03.03.
“Localizing 4,000 Years of Cultural History. Texts and Scripts from Elephantine Island in Egypt. ERC Grant ID: 637692,” n.d. TBA.
Porten, Bezalel, and Ada Yardeni. Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt. 4 vols. Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1986.
Textual Notes
The verso contains and administrative docket in addition to the expected docket (the latter of which was found and added by Porten). (Search Kraeling to see if this was originally sealed, but probably not.) Kraeling notes that the (administrative) docket does not match the corrected discription on the recto, but that it is in a different hand and pen profile might explain this (see below).
Note that the writer makes many changes.
–The fine for divorce is corrected for both parties.
–The amount of Balsam oil brought into the marriage is changed.
–The changes in the inheritance clause may have been a later correction made after Tamet's emancipation (?), but the hand and pen profile look very similar. I would rather explain as writer error. Note: the ה on שליטה was added with the correction, while the rest of the word was original (masc. refering to Mešullam).
–Anani's inheritance clause contains a superfulous הו as an interlinear insert above an existing הו, and an erasued superfulous בינ at the end of the same line.
–an errasure on the verso, but this appears to be in a different hand and with a different pen profile. (see note above)
–note the scribal mark in the margin between 12 and 13 that may mark the section in which a major addition was added.
inconsistencies are present:
–Anani is spelled plene Ananyah in line 2 and 11 but Anani in 2, 7, 9, 11, 13. (is perhaps the distinction here between the official name and the name used in speech? Needs to be checked.
–The husband must declare divorce in "an assembly", but this is missing for the woman.
Text and Translation
Choose alternative texts and translations from the filter. Click individual words in a text for more details.
James Moore
James Moore
[On] the 18th of [Ab, that is day 30 ]⸢of⸣ the month of Pharmuthi, year 16 of Artaxer(xes) the king, said
ˁAnanyah son of ˁAzaryah, a lḥn-servitor of Yahô the God, who is in Fort Elephantine, to Mešullam son of Zakkûr, an Aramean of Syene
of the detachment of Varyazata, saying: I came to you (m.s.) (asking you) to give me ⸢the one named⸣ Tamet, ⸢who is your (m.s.) female-servant⸣, for wifehood. She is my wife
and I am her husband from this day and forever. Tamet brought into me in her hand: garment of wool–1, equal (in) silver (to)
7 šeqels; mirror–1, equal (in) silver to 7 (and) a half hallurs; pair of sandals–1; balsam oil– (erased: 1 handful)
half a handful; castor oil–6 handfuls; tray–1. Total of the silver and the value of the goods (in) silver = silver, 7 šeqels
7 (and) a half hallurs. Should tomorrow or another day, ˁAnanî stand in an assembly and say: “I hated Tamet my wife,”
the silver of a hater is on his head. He shall give Tamet silver, 7 (and) \2 q(uarters)/ ṯeqels, and all that she brought in in her hand she shall take out, from straw
to string. Should tomorrow or another day, should Tamet stand and say: “I hated my husband ˁAnanî,” the silver of a hater is on her head.
She shall give ˁAnanî silver, 7 shekels (and) \2 q(uarters)/ and all that she brought in in her hand she shall take out, from straw to string. Should tomorrow or
another (10) day, (11) ˁAnanyah die, Tamet, she (errasure: Mešullam son of Zaccur, he] has right (errasure: to half) to all goods which will be between ˁAnanî and Tamet.
Should tomorrow or or another day, Tamet die, ˁAnanî, he \he/ has right (ERASURE: to half) to all goods which will be between (ERASURE: between)
Tamet and between ˁAnanî. And I, Meshullam, tomorrow or another day, shall not be able to reclaim Pilṭî from under
your (m.s.) (legal) satisfaction unless you expel his mother Tamet. \And if I have reclaimed him from you (m.s.), I shall give ˁAnanî silver, 5 karsh./ Wrote Natan son of ˁAnanyah this document. And the witnesses
herein: witness, Natan son of Gadûl; Menaḥem son of Zakkûr; Gemaryah son of Maḥseyah.
Tamet brought in to ˁAnanî in her hand silver, 1 karsh, 5 shekels.
⸢Do⸣cument of wi[fehood which ˁAnanî wrote for Ta]⸢m⸣et.
Moore, James D.. 'Brooklyn Museum 47.218.89.' DEAPS. 12 Dec, 2025. https://deaps.osu.edu/text_objects/11902. Accessed: 20 Jan, 2026.