Brooklyn Museum 47.218.88
Dowry Addendum
TAD B.3.11 Kraeling 10
Metadata
- Collection
- Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York, USA | Brook (Public)
- Genres
-
- Legal (Content)
- Contract
- dowry addendum
- conveyance
- ספר בי 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 (Composition in text)
- Babylonian 20.xii Art 3 [Persian, 5th cent. BCE]
- Date (Other date in text)
- Egyptian 8.iv Art 3 [Persian, 5th cent. BCE]
- Date (Metadata)
- Gregorian 9.03.-402 [Persian, 5th cent. BCE]
- References
-
- Lepper, Verena M. et al. . ERC 307763.
- Porten, Bezalel and Yardeni, Ada 1986. TAD B.03.11.
“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
recto 3: Notes I am under the impression that the writer is citing a former deed or contract for this Egyptian-southern room-style renovated house. The words in the description are mostly of akkadian loanwords and the form דנה for the demonstrative in line three. Alternatively this may be a reference to akk. dinnatu which Muffs (p. 189) had identified as a document transaction type: conveyence document: see docket of Berlin P. 13491. For the demonstrative form cf. 47.218.91 ln. 8. . Note the error of theזנה on line 7.
Note that the same writer spells תרי רסי as דרירסי in Brooklyn Museum 47.218.92 ln. 3
recto 4: for the phrase אגר באגר see lexical_base.
Recto 7-9: note the error on 7 and the duplicated error of זנה on 8 are probably due to parablepsis, which indicates that this is a copy of another document: either the notes of the writer or another copy of the contract. This is also the case for the error אענני corrected to אנה\ ענני/.
rect 13-14: the errasure and marginal insertion at line 14 that changes ל to על is strange since in לכי is the parallel indirect object.
rect 16: the errasure was likely כת, the start of כתבנ which again may be due to parablepsis. Also the verb after correction is missing the expected medial י for the singular, or the final נ for the plural.
Text and Translation
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James Moore
James Moore
On the 20th of Adar, that is day 8 of Choiak, year 3 of Artaxerxes the king, then said ˁAnanî son of ˁAzaryah, a lḥn-servitor of
Yahô the god at Fort Elephantine, to Yehôyišmaˁ his daughter, saying: I gave you (f.s.) one renovated house, a lower (level) house containing beams
and 3 doors; it (is) the renovated southern room. Its exiting gate are (gram. "is") (at) its stairway and its courtyard. And this is its boundaries: to its east,
the treasury of the king adjoins wall by wall (parallel or adjacently [?]) to the retaining-wall which the Egyptians built. To its west is the exiting gate of yours (m.s.) and the street of
the king. Between them, above it, the house of the shrine of the god adjoins it wall by wall (parallel or adjacently [?]) and the wall of the house adjoins it wall by wall (parallel or adjacently [?]).
It is the large room of mine below it. The house of Ḥor son of Peṭeese, a gardener of Khnum the god, adjoins it wall \by wall (parallel or adjacently [?])/.
This (is) the house whose boundaries are written in this document. I, ˁAnanî son of ˁAzaryah, gave it to you (m.s) (as) an after-gift accordinly that is not \written on your document of wifehood/
with ˁAnanî son of Haggay son of Mešullam son of Busasa. You (f.s.), Yehôiišmaˁ my daughter, have right to it from this <this> day until forever
and your (f.s.) children have right after you (f.s.). \I/ ˁAnanî son of ˁAzaryah the lḥn-servitor, shall not be able to say: “I gave (it) to you (f.s.) with love (as) an after-gift on the document
of your (f.s.) wifehood, even later.” If I say: “I shall reclaim (it) from you (f.s.),” I shall be guilty and I shall give Yehôyišmaˁ a penalty(-payment) of silver, 30 karš,
refined (10) silver, (11) according to the stone(-weight)s of the king, and you (f.s.) likewise have right to this house, whose boundaries are written above, in my lifetime and at my death. Moreover,
no son of mine nor daughter of mine, no brother nor sister, no partner-in-chattel nor partner-in-land nor guarantor shall be able (to sue). Whoever shall file a lawsuit or a litigation against you (f.s.) and shall lay charge against you (f.s.)
or against your (f.s.) children to a manager or a lord (in order) to take away this house from before you (f.s.) in my lifetime or at my death shall be guilty. He shall give to you (f.s.)
or unto your children a penalty(-payment) of silver, 30 karš, by the stone(-weight)s of the king, and you (f.s.) nevertheless have right to this house whose boundaries
are written in this document. And should he proceed with a lawsuit, he shall not be innocent. Moreover, they shall not be able to bring out against you (f.s.) a new or old document in the name of
this (15) house (16) whose boundaries above are (gram. "is") writ(t)e(n) in this document. Whoever shall bring out (one)--a forgery is this one. The document which I ˁAnanî, wrote for you (f.s.)
is legitimate. Haggay son of Šemaˁyah wrote this document in Elephantine at the instruction of ˁAnanî son of ˁAzaryah, the lḥn-servitor of Yahô the god.
The witnesses herein: (hand 2) witness Natan son of Yahôˀûr, (hand 3) witness Menaḥem son of Gadûl, (hand 4) witness ˀAḥyô son of Natan,
(hand 5) witness Naḥûm son of Baytaˀ, (hand 6) witness Natan son of Maˁuzyah, (hand 7) witness Šammuˁa son of Pelûlyah,
(hand 8) witness Haggay son of Mardû/Mardava, (hand 9) witness Yedanyah son of Gemaryah.
Document (sealing) of a house which ˁAnanî son of ˁAzaryah wrote for Ya⸢h⸣[ô]yišmaˁ his daughter.
Moore, James D.. 'Brooklyn Museum 47.218.88.' DEAPS. 12 Dec, 2025. https://deaps.osu.edu/text_objects/11915. Accessed: 20 Jan, 2026.