Pap. Ber. P. 13607

General Notes

This likely comes from Elephantine, but the provenance is uncertain. According to TAD, where it is first published, it was "pieced together from fragmetns in the Staatliche Museen zu (East) Berlin." The museum catalogue now reads, provenance unknown, and given the title Demotic papyrus contract. The 1953 catalogues Aramaic papyrus contract and notes it was in older inventories. From Porten, "Fragmentary," 170: "Discoveries are still being made in museum storerooms. This piece was lying unassembled in a small metal container in the Papyrussammlung of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and was put together in collaboration with Ada Yardeni and Miryam Krutzsch, the Museum's papyrologist. There is a join at the bottom of the signature fragment and another at line 1, giving the sheet a height of 12.8 cm. Papyrologically, paleographically, and onomastically the piece fits well into the first half of the fifth century. It belongs to the bottom middle third of a ca. 28 cm (medium width) conveyance drawn up by an unidentifiable scribe at the behest of [Ma]hseiah b. Isa[iah,] known as a witness in 471 (C 5:16) and 460/59 B.C.E. (C 8:33 1I 9:21). The handwriting in our document is like that in these early documents (cf. also C 6). The object conveyed is unknown, and the restorations are approximate."