Excavations at Nessana, Volume 3: Non-Literary Papyri 9781400879670

Table of contents :
CONTENTS
PREFACE
TABLE OF PAPYRI
LIST OF PLATES
NOTE ON THE METHOD OF PUBLICATION
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
INTRODUCTION
TEXTS
DOCUMENTS 14-96
MINOR DOCUMENTS 97-195
INDICES
I. RULERS
a) THE IMPERIAL HOUSE
b) ARAB OFFICIALS
II. CONSULS, INDICTIONS, ERAS
III. MONTHS AND DAYS
IV. PERSONAL NAMES
a) GENERAL
b) ARAB TRIBES
V. GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
a) COUNTRIES, CITIES, VILLAGES, etc
b) FIELDS
c) CHURCHES
VI. RELIGION
VII. OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TERMS
VIII. TRADES
IX. WEIGHTS, MEASURES, COINS
X. TAXES AND DUES
XI. GENERAL INDEX OF WORDS
XII. ARABIC NAMES

Citation preview

Excavations at Nessana

THESE VOLUMES CONTAIN THE REPORT OF THE EXCAVATIONS AT NESSANA, THE MODERN AUJA HAFIR, IN THE NEGEB IN PALESTINE. THE EXCAVATIONS WERE CONDUCTED BY ,HARRIS DUNSCOMBE COLT, JR., AND THEIR PUBLICATION IS UNDER THE GENERAL DIRECTION OF THE COLT ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, OF WHICH MR. COLT IS PRESIDENT.

Excavations at Nessana V

O

1. IJ M

K

NON-LITERARY

BY

GASPER

3

PAPYRI

J. K R A E M E R ,

JR.

P R I N C E T O N U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S • 1958 P R I N C E T O N , NEW

JERSEY

ALL RIGHTS BY

PRINCETON L. C. C A R D

PRINTED

IN G E R M A N Y

RESERVED

UNIVERSITY NO.

PRESS

50-II382

A T J. J. AUGUSTIN,

GLUCKSTADT

TO

RUTH

PREFACE In 1935, Harris Dunscombe Colt, excavating at Auja el-Hafir in Southern Palestine, made the remarkable find of papyrus documents that was to bring back into the light of history the forgotten town of Nessana. The literary papyri were published in 1950 by two of my colleagues at New York University, Lionel Casson and Ernest L. Hettich, as Volume II of the Excavation at Nessana. The non-literary documents here published have significance in the fact that they were found outside Egypt and thus enable us to obtain a somewhat different view from that afforded by the thousands coming from the prolific land of the Nile. They are important also in their date. Written in the centuries immediately preceding and following the Mohammedan movement, they are evidence for the earlier days of Islam. For these reasons they may perhaps attract the interest of readers not primarily concerned with papyri. On the chance that this will be the case, I have departed somewhat from the method of publication long familiar to specialists in papyrology. For one thing, I have adopted a system of reference which is designed to eliminate the footnote, not merely from the bottom of the page but everywhere. It is high time that some action be taken by classical scholars to deal with this impediment to clarity, too often merely a device for preserving litter accumulated in the course of working out a main idea. The system I employ is not my invention. It has been in use for decades by scientists, and consists simply of incorporating in the actual text abbreviated references, the key to which is the bibliography. All material which cannot logically or syntactically be integrated in the argument is discarded. With the same end of making the work a bit clearer to nonspecialists, I have adopted a somewhat more popular style than is customary. I have laid stress in the translations on clarifying the Greek, sometimes indeed making them -para-phrases rather than versions. Wherever possible I have avoided the use of technical terms, with which the general reader has rarely the means of coping. Using English equivalents is naturally dangerous, but has the virtue at least of making sense. It is not possible to be entirely consistent in these matters and the nontechnical reader will also have cause to complain in that the terms cannot always be avoided, but at least the introductions and translations should make sense. Because of the condition of the papyrus and the abundance of phonetic spellings, the apparatus criticus bulks rather large, and in an attempt to keep it within bounds, I have pruned it very closely, followed the principles that in general (a) where no accents are given, the text represents what is on the papyrus, (b) where accents are inserted but nothing more, a phonetic variant (or a mispronunciation) is corrected, (c) when the form is both accented and preceded by "for," there is a mistake (in case, tense, etc.) and the app. crit. gives the corrected form while the mistake is left in the text. Accentuation of Semitic names has always presented a vexatious problem. Fundamental differences in phonetics make it almost impossible even at the present moment to reach agreement on pronunciation of Arab names, and the difficulties are more serious still in the case of Semitic names which went through a process of Hellenization in antiquity. Preisigke in the introduction to his Namenbuck has formulated a few principles which are admittedly practical rather than scientific. Accents he regards as a concession to common usage. They indicate a conventional pronunciation current among classical scholars rather than the actual pronunciation of ancient native speakers. The Semitist and the phonetician, he says, will not be led astray by inaccuracies inherent in this procedure and, in any case, the accentuation is not designed for them. He concludes frankly (4*): "Das ich dabei immer das Richtige getroffen habe, darf ich keinesfalls behaupten." However, the large number of Arab names cited in these papyri and the varying degree of HeIlenization to which they have been subjected will be of interest to students both of Arabic and of Greek phonetics, and I have therefore abandoned Preisigke's policy by leaving out all accentuation of Arabic names but have accented the Hellenized forms on the principle that the ancient scribes were attempting to reproduce in Greek (Byzantine, not classical) the Arabic sounds. Among the documents of minor interest are included a rather larger number than usual of unimportant fragments. They are so included to remind the specialist of the fragmentary and damaged nature of the archive and also of the fact that among the many scraps (perhaps 500)

viii

P R E F A C E

deemed too small to deserve publication there may be found a few that will be joined to the larger pieces or to each other. All the papyri, including those published in Volume II, but not the few noted in the text as still in Palestine, have been deposited by Mr. Colt on permanent loan in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City, where they are available to the study of scholars. Their bibliographical designation is P. Colt. It is with a sense of satisfaction rather than as an obligation that I record publicly the help I have received in writing this volume. The cliche "without whom this book could not have been written" applies to my friend and colleague Professor Lionel Casson, who has played a part in all stages of the work, but markedly in the last, when his critical eye has scanned every line of every page. Next in helpfulness was Professor Naphtali Lewis, now of Brooklyn College, whose fine legal hand will be recognized in pieces like ig but whose many suggestions and readings have become so imbedded in the text that they can no longer be isolated. In almost half the volume, his share amounts to that of a collaborator. The assistance of Dr. Florence E. Day in the Arabic texts, names, and index has been invaluable. Too many scholars have personally or in letters offered suggestions for me to acknowledge all of them. Sir Harold Bell was kind and critical as he has been to scores of other scholars; Herbert C. Youtie almost equally so. Philip A. Hitti, L. A. Mayer, Philip Mayerson, Georgios A. Petropoulos, T. C. Skeat, Bluma Trell, Friedrich Zucker have all contributed ideas or criticisms. Harris Dunscombe Colt has continuously put at my disposal his records and memories of the excavations at Auja-Hafir. To all of these, and also to the friends who are not here mentioned, go my warmest and most sincere thanks. And, finally, after all the years which I have spent with this book, it is with genuine surprise and a measure of disbelief that I find myself writing that it is finished. New York University October 7, J957

CONTENTS PREFACE

vii

TABLE OF PAPYRI

x

LIST OF PLATES

xiv

N O T E ON T H E M E T H O D OF PUBLICATION

xv

LI ST OF A B B R E V I A T I O N S

xv

INTRODUCTION

3

TEXTS D O C U M E N T S 14r-96

40

MINOR DOCUMENTS 97-195

3x0

INDICES I RULERS

332

a) T H E I M P E R I A L b) A R A B

HOUSE

OFFICIALS

II CONSULS, INDICTIONS, E R A S

332

III M O N T H S A N D D A Y S

333

IV PERSONAL NAMES

333

a)

GENERAL

b) A R A B

TRIBES

V GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

341

a) C O U N T R I E S , C I T I E S , V I L L A G E S , etc. b)

FIELDS

c)

CHURCHES

VI RELIGION

342

VII OFFICIAL A N D M I L I T A R Y TERMS VIII TRADES

342

I X W E I G H T S , MEASURES, COINS X TAXES AND DUES XI

GENERAL INDEX

X I I ARABIC NAMES

342

343 343

OF W O R D S

343 352

TABLE OF PAPYRI DOCUMENTS 14 CONTRACT 15 RELEASE 16 DIVISION OF PROPERTY 17 FRAGMENT OF A CONTRACT 18 MARRIAGE SETTLEMENT 19 DEPOSITION ON SETTLEMENT OF LAWSUIT 20 MARRIAGE CONTRACT 21 DIVISION OF PROPERTY 22 PARTITION OF INHERITANCE 22 PARTITION OF INHERITANCE 23 BILL OF SALE 24 NOTICE TO LAND OFFICE 25 CONTRACT 26 LOAN OF MONEY 27 LOAN OF MONEY 28 LOAN OF MONEY 29 SUMMONS 30 DECLARATION CONCERNING AN INHERITANCE 31 DIVISION OF PROPERTY 32 CESSION OF LAND 33 DIVORCE AGREEMENT 34 CONTRACT 35 LEVY OF CAMELS 36 MILITARY ACCOUNT 37 ACCOUNT OF MILITARY CAMELS 38 ACCOUNT OF MONEY PAYMENTS 39 ACCOUNT OF ALLOTMENTS BY VILLAGES 40 ACCOUNT OF DISPOSITION OF WHEAT 41 PROTOCOL AND LEGAL DOCUMENT 42 PROTOCOL 43 CONTRACT 44 RECEIPT FOR LOAN OF MONEY 45 RECEIPT 46 LOAN OF MONEY 47 TWO LETTERS ON A SHIPMENT OF FISH 48 SECURITY FOR A LOAN 49 LETTER 50 LETTER FROM BISHOP GEORGE 51 LETTER FROM THE BISHOP OF AELA 52 CLERICAL LETTER 53 LETTER FROM THE ABBOT PATRICK 54 PETITION 55 RECEIPT FOR TAXES 56 RELEASE FROM LABOR CONTRACT 57 DIVORCE AGREEMENT 58 RECEIPT FOR TAX ON ASSIGNED LAND 59 PARTIAL PAYMENT OF LAND AND POLL TAXES 60 REQUISITION OF WHEAT AND OIL 61 REQUISITION OF WHEAT AND OIL 62 REQUISITION OF WHEAT AND OIL 63'REQUISITION OF WHEAT AND OIL 64 REQUISITION OF WHEAT AND OIL, OR MONEY 65 REQUISITION OF WHEAT AND OIL, OR MONEY 66 REQUISITION OF WHEAT AND OIL 67 REQUISITION OF AVHEAT AND OIL

Before 505 Rhinocorura, May 30, 512 July 11, 512 February 2 (or July 7), 517 May-June 537 August 18, 548 January or June 558 June 30 or July 1, 562 December 2, 566 December 2, 566 566-567 ? November 26, 569 c· 569 January 12, 570 570-571 After 572 Elusa, December 23, 590 September 13, 596 VI VI VI VI VI VI 560-580 ? VI Mid-VI ? Early VII VI VI VI

59s March 30, 602 July 16, 605 Before 605 ? Early VII VI-VII Early VII Aela, early VII Early VII Before 608 ? Late VI or early VII Gaza, April 11, 682 (?) January 18, 687 September 1-17, 689 Late VII Gaza, October 684 (?) October-November 674 August 675 October 675 October 675 February 676 675-676 February 677 August-September 689

T A B L E 68 69 70 71 72 73

74 75 76 77

78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96

OF

Y R I

LETTER ACCOUNT OF F O O D T A X {rizk) O R D E R F O R P A Y M E N T OF POLL T A X L E T T E R CONCERNING P A Y M E N T OF T A X E S O R D E R FROM T H E G O V E R N O R F O R A G U I D E O R D E R FROM T H E G O V E R N O R F O R A G U I D E L E T T E R CONCERNING COMPULSORY PUBLIC SERVICE LETTER ORGANIZING T A X PROTEST R E G I S T E R OF P A Y E R S OF POLL T A X ACCOUNT OF T A X R E C E I P T S ACCOUNT ACCOUNT OF O F F E R I N G S TO T H E CHURCH OF ST. S E R G I U S ACCOUNT OF CHURCH O F F E R I N G S ACCOUNT OF RECEIPTS IN K I N D ACCOUNT OF G R A I N Y I E L D ACCOUNT OF W H E A T PROTOCOL A N D ACCOUNT ACCOUNT OF E X P E N D I T U R E S F R A G M E N T OF ACCOUNT L I S T OF F O O D S T U F F S U N F I N I S H E D ACCOUNT ACCOUNT OF A T R A D I N G COMPANY D A I L Y R E C O R D OF S A L E S OF D A T E S ACCOUNT OF SALES OF D A T E S OFFICIAL ACCOUNT OFFICIAL ACCOUNT ACCOUNT ACCOUNT PRAYER MINOR

97 98 99 100 lor 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 no HI 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123

P A P

D I V I S I O N OF PROPERTY" DIVISION OF H O U S E PROPERTY D I V I S I O N OF P R O P E R T Y D I V I S I O N OF P R O P E R T Y D I V I S I O N OF P R O P E R T Y D I V I S I O N OF P R O P E R T Y D I V I S I O N OF P R O P E R T Y AGREEMENT AGREEMENT CONTRACT OF M A R R I A G E OR D I V O R C E CONTRACT OF M A R R I A G E OR D I V O R C E CONTRACT OF M A R R I A G E OR D I V O R C E CONTRACT OF M A R R I A G E OR D I V O R C E L O A N OF M O N E Y L O A N OF M O N E Y CONCLUSION OF CONTRACT AGREEMENT CONCLUSION OF CONTRACT WILL WILL ? WILL ? AGREEMENT AGREEMENT AGREEMENT CONCLUSION OF CONTRACT CONCLUSION OF CONTRACT CONCLUSION OF CONTRACT

xj c. 6So 6S0/1 ? c 685 ? VII March 684 ? December 683 ? c. 6S5 Latc*VII 6S0 ? c. 685-690 Late VII Early VII c. 685 > c. 685 ? VII ' 684-685 VII End of V I I ' VII VII Late VII Late VI - early VII VI-VI1 VI-VII c 685 c . 685 VII ' Late VI - early VII Early VII

DOCUMENTS VI VI Late VI - early V I I VI VI VI VI VI VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VI VI Late VI VI VII VI VI VI VI-VII VI VI Late VI or early VII VI VI VI

xii 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182

T A B L E

OF

P A P Y R I

CONCLUSION OF CONTRACT CONCLUSION OF CONTRACT CONCLUSION OF CONTRACT CONCLUSION OF CONTRACT CONCLUSION OF CONTRACT CONCLUSION OF CONTRACT AGREEMENT AGREEMENT AGREEMENT ACCOUNT OF F O D D E R A N D FOODSTUFFS F R A G M E N T OF SOLDIER'S L E T T E R ? ACCOUNT ACCOUNT ACCOUNT ACCOUNT L I S T OF N A M E S ACCOUNT UNCERTAIN UNCERTAIN UNCERTAIN PROTOCOL L E T T E R B E L O N G I N G TO CHURCH MILIEU L E T T E R B E L O N G I N G TO CHURCH MILIEU L O A N B Y A B B O T PATRICK L E T T E R B E L O N G I N G TO CHURCH MILIEU L E T T E R B E L O N G I N G TO CHURCH MILIEU ? L E T T E R B E L O N G I N G TO CHURCH MILIEU ? L E T T E R B E L O N G I N G TO CHURCH MILIEU L E T T E R B E L O N G I N G TO CHURCH MILIEU ? L E T T E R B E L O N G I N G TO CHURCH MILIEU ? L E T T E R B E L O N G I N G TO CHURCH MILIEU L E T T E R B E L O N G I N G TO CHURCH MILIEU L E T T E R B E L O N G I N G TO CHURCH MILIEU ACCOUNT LETTER LETTER ? L E T T E R CONCERNING T A X E S OR R E Q U I S I T I O N S L E T T E R CONCERNING PURCHASE OF SABIATHIA LETTER L E T T E R CONCERNING L E G A L M A T T E R S LETTER LETTER LETTER LETTER LETTER LETTER LETTER LETTER LETTER A D D R E S S OF A L E T T E R ? B E G I N N I N G OF A L E T T E R LETTER ? ACCOUNT ACCOUNT ACCOUNT ACCOUNT ACCOUNT ACCOUNT ACCOUNT

VI-VII VI-VII VI VI VI VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VI VI Late VI VI VI VI VII VI VI VI VI VI VI VI-VII VI-VII Early V I I Early V I I VI-VII VII Early V I I VII VI-VII Early V I I Early V I I VI-VII VI-VII Arab period Arab period VI-VII VII VI VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VII VII VI-VII VI VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII

TABLE 183 IS4 ISS 186 IS7 188 189 190 191 19 2 193 194 195

OF

ACCOUNT ACCOUNT UNCERTAIN UNCERTAIN ADDRESS ? UNCERTAIN UNCERTAIN UNCERTAIN UNCERTAIN UNCERTAIN AGREEMENT PROTOCOL FRAGMENTS OF TACHYGRAPHIC WRITING INDEXES

PAPYRI

xiii

VI-VII VI-VII VII VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VI-VII VII \'I-VII \'IT

VI-VII VI-VII

LIST

OF

PLATES

1

22.11-18; 25

2

41; 42

3

44; t o p o f 4 7 . 6 - i o ; b o t t o m o f 53.15

4

36; 50

5 76 6

60; 8 2 . 1 - n

7

89

8

92

NOTE ON THE METHOD OF PUBLICATION The practice followed in this volume is, in the main, that which has been adopted in most editions of papyri. The symbols have their usual meanmgs: [ ] lacuna [ ~ deletion in the original < > omission in the original { } superfluous letter or letters ( ) resolution of a symbol or abbreviation Dots placed \vithin square brackets represent approximately the number of letters lost; dots outside brackets represent visible but illegible traces; dots under letters indicate doubtful readings. Semitic names with but a few exceptions are printed without accents or breathings. Arabic numbers in heavier type refer to the documents in this volume and in Volume II. The inscriptions referred to in this volume are published in Nessana T.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbott I937 = Nabia Abbott, The J1r[onaster£es oj the Fayyum. Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 16, 1937 Abel I909 = F. M. Abel, "Nouveau fragment de l'edit byzantin de Bersabee," Revue biblique N.S. 6 (I909) 89-106 Abel I927 = F. M. Abel, Gra11't1naire d~t grec biblique (Paris, I927) Abel I933 = F. M. Abel, Geographie de la Palestine. Vol. I, Geographic physique et historique (Paris, 1933) Abel I938 = F. M. Abel, Geographie de la Palestine. Vol. II, Geographie politique. Les villes (Paris) 1938) Alt I92I = A. Alt, Die griechischen Inschrijten der Palaestina Tertia westlich dey Araba. Wissenschaftliche Veroffentlichungen des c1eutsch-turkischen Denkmalschutz-Kommandos, Heft II (Berlin and Leipzig) 192I) Alt 1924 = A. Alt, "Epigraphische Nachlese," Zeitschrijt des Deutschen Paliistina-Vereins 47 (I924) 9 I -99 Alt I930 = A. Alt, "Limes Palestinae}" Paliistina J ahrbuch d. deutsch. evangel. Inst. jilr Alte1'tumswiss. d. heil. Landes zu Jerusalem 26 (I930) 43-82 Alt 1931 = A. Alt, "Limes Palestinae," Pal. J ahrb. 27 (1931) 75-84 II

xvi

L I S T

OF

A B B R E V I A T I O N S

A l t 1 9 3 2 = A . Alt, " A n f a n g und E n d e des altchristlichen Inschriftenwesens in Palastina und Arabien. I, Die A n f a n g e , " Pal. Jahrb. 28 (1932) 8 3 - 1 0 3 A l t 1 9 3 5 = A . Alt, "Romische Kastelle und Strassen," ZDPV 58 { 1 9 3 5 ) 1 - 7 8 = A u s der Araber, 11 (Leipzig, 1 9 3 5 ) Altheim 1 9 5 2 = A . Altheim, Niedergang der alten Welt; eine TJntersuchung der TJrsache, Vols. 1-11 (Frankfurt, 1 9 5 2 ) Antonini 1 9 4 0 = Luciana Antonini, " L e Chiese cristiane," Aegyptus 20 (1940) 1 2 9 - 2 0 8 A v i - Y o n a h 1 9 4 0 = M. A v i - Y o n a h , " M a p of Roman Palestine," Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine 5 (1935) 1 3 9 - 1 9 3 , reprinted Oxford University Press (1940) 1 - 5 5 Barison 1 9 3 8 = Paola Barison, "Ricerche sui monasteri dell'Egitto bizantino ed arabo secondo i documentidei papiri greci," Aegyptus 1 6 (1938) 2 9 - 1 4 S Baynes-Moss 1 9 4 8 = Norman H. Baynes and H. St. L . B . Moss, Byzantium: an Introduction to East Roman Civilization (Oxford, 1948) Bell 1 9 2 6 = H. I. Bell, " T w o Official Letters of the A r a b Period," Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 1 2 (1926) 2 6 5 - 2 8 1 Bell 1944 = H. I. Bell, " A n E g y p t i a n Village in the A g e of Justinian," Journal of Hellenic Studies 64 (1944) 21—36 Bell 1 9 4 5 = H . I. Bell, " T h e Arabic Bilingual Entagion," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 89 (1945) 531—542 Berger 1 9 4 5 = A . Berger, " P . Mich. Inv. 4703 and Dotis Dictio in Roman L a w , " Journal of Jiiristic Papyrology 1 (1945) 1 3 - 2 8 B G U = Aegyptische Urkunden aus den koeniglichen ( = staatlichen) Museen zu Berlin: Griechische Urkunden, Vols, i - i x (Berlin, 1895-1937) B L = F . Preisigke and F . Bilabel, Berichtigungsliste der griechischen aus Agypten, Vols. 1-11 (Berlin, Leipzig, and Papyrusurkunden Heidelberg, 1 9 2 2 - 1 9 3 3 ) Briinnow-Domaszewski 1 9 0 4 - 9 = Rudolf Ernst Brunnow and Alfred v. Domaszewski, Die Provincia Arabia, Vols. 1 (1904), 11 (1905), i n (1909) (Strasbourg) Buckland 1 9 3 2 = W . W . Buckland, A Text-book of Roman Law from Augustus to Justinian, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1 9 3 2 ) B u r y , J . , History of the Later Roman Empire (A.D. 395—565), 2 vols. (London, 1 9 2 3 ) Butler 1 9 2 9 = Howard Crosby Butler, Early Churches in Syria, Fourth to Seventh Centuries, edited and completed b y E . Baldwin Smith. Part. 1, History (Princeton, 1929)

L I S T

O F

A B B R E V I A T I O N S

CAH = The Cambridge Ancient History, Vols, i - x i i (Cambridge and New York, 1928-1939) Calderini 1 9 3 5 = A . Calderini, Dizionario dei nomi geografici (Cairo,

1935)

Casson 1 9 3 8 = Lionel Casson, "Tax-Collection Problems in EarlyArab E g y p t , " Transactions of the American Philological Association 69 (1938) 2 7 5 - 2 9 1 Casson 1 9 3 9 = Lionel Casson, " W i n e Measures and Prices in ByzanAssociation tine E g y p t , " Transactions of the American Philological 70 (1939) 1 - 1 6 Corbett 1 9 3 0 = P. E . Corbett, The Roman Law of Marriage (Oxford, i93o) C P R = C. Wessely (and L . Mitteis), Corpus papyrorum Raineri Archiducis Austriae. Vol. 1, Griechische Texte, Bd. 1 (Vienna, 1895) Cronert 1 9 0 3 — W . Cronert, Memoria graeca herculanensis (Leipzig, I

9°3)

Dean 1 9 3 5 = Epiphanius' Treatise on Weights and Measures. The Syriac Version, edited b y J a m e s Elmer Dean. Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 11. 1935 Dennet 1 9 5 0 = Daniel C. Dennett, Conversion and the Poll Tax in Early Islam (Cambridge, 1950) Diehl 1 9 1 3 = Charles Diehl, "Justinian's Government in the E a s t " in Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. 11, 2 5 - 6 2 (London, 1 9 1 3 ) Dussaud 1 9 2 7 = R . Dussaud, Topographie historique de la Syrie antique et medievale (Paris, 1 9 2 7 ) E n c y c . Islam = Encyclopaedia of Islam: a Dictionary of the Geography, Ethnography and Biography of the Muhammadan Peoples, edited b y M. Th. Houtsma, T . W . Arnold, R . Basset, and R . Hartmann, Vols. 1—v (Leyden, 1 9 1 3 - 1 9 3 4 ) Falenciak 1948 = J e r z y Falenciak, " N o t e : P Colt Inv. Nr. 1 3 , 3 0 6 — Release from Paramone," Journal of Juristic Papyrology 2 (1948)

75-79

XI*

Frank 1940 = T. Frank, Rome and Italy of the Empire. An Economic Survey of Ancient Rome, Vol. v (Baltimore, 1940) Gardthausen 1 9 1 1 = V . Gardthausen, Griechische Palaeographie. 1, Das Buchwesen im Alter turn und im byzantinischen Mittelalter, 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1 9 1 1 ) Gardthausen 1 9 1 3 = V . Gardthausen, Griechische Palaeographie. 11, Die Schrift, Unterschriften und Chronologic im Altertum und im byzantinischen Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1 9 1 3 ) Geyer 1898 — P. Geyer, Itinera hierosolymitana saeculi IIII-VIII.

xvii

xviii

L I S T

OF

A B B R E V I A T I O N S

Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum laiinorum, Vol. 39 (Vienna, 1898) Ghedini 1 9 2 3 — Giuseppe Ghedini, Lettere chrisliane dai papiri greci del III e IV secolo (Milan, 1923) Grace 1 9 5 2 = Virginia Grace, "Timbres amphoriques trouves a Delos," Bulletin de correspondance hellenique 76 (1952) 5 1 4 - 5 4 0 Grant 1 9 3 7 = Christina Phelps Grant, The Syrian Desert: Caravans, Travel and Exploration (London, 1937) Grohmann 1 9 3 2 = Adolf Grohmann, "Apergu de papyrologie arabe," Etudes de papyrologie x (1932) 2 3 - 9 5 Grohmann 1 9 5 2 — Adolf Grohmann, From the World of Arabic Papyri (Cairo, 1952) Hardy 1 9 3 1 = E . R . Hardy, J r . , The Large Estates of Byzantine Egypt. University of Columbia Studies in History, Economics and Public L a w 354 (New York, 1 9 3 1 ) Haywood 1 9 3 8 = R. Haywood, Roman Africa. An Economic Survey of Ancient Rome, edited by T. Frank, Vol. 11, 1 - 1 1 9 (Baltimore, 1938) Heichelheim 1 9 3 8 = F . M. Heichelheim, Roman Syria. An Economic Survey of Ancient Rome, edited by T . Frank, Vol. iv, 1 2 1 - 2 5 7 (Baltimore, 1938) Heuser 1929 = G. Heuser, Die Personennamen der Kopten. 1, Untersuchungen (Leipzig, 1929) Hitti 1 9 1 6 = P. K . Hitti, The Origins of the Islamic State-, being a translation from the Arabic, accompanied with annotations, geographic and historic notes, of the Kitab Futuh al-Buldan of al-Imam abu-l eAbbas Ahmad ibn-Jabir al-Baladhuri, Vol. 1 (New York, 1916) Hitti 1946 = P. K . Hitti, History of the Arabs, 4th ed. (London, 1946) Hitti 1 9 5 1 = P. K . Hitti, History of Syria, including Lebanon and Palestine (New York, 1 9 5 1 ) Hohlwein 1 9 3 9 = Nicholas Hohlwein, "Palmiers et palmeraies dans l'Egypte romaine," Etudes de papyrologie 5 (1939) 1 - 7 4 Hornickel 1930 = Otto Hornickel, Ehren- und Rangpradikate in den Papyrusurkunden: ein Beitrag zum romischen und byzantinischen Titelwesen (Giessen, 1930) Hunt-Edgar 1 9 3 4 = A . S. Hunt and C. C. Edgar, Select Papyri with an English Translation, 11, Official Documents (Cambridge, Mass., I

934)

Huntington 1 9 1 1 = E . Huntington, Palestine and its (Boston, 1 9 1 1 )

Transformation

L I S T

O F

A B B R E V I A T I O N S

Johnson 1936 — Allan Chester Johnson, Roman Egypt to the Reign of Diocletian, An Economic Survey of Ancient Rome, edited by T. Frank, Vol. 11 (Baltimore, 1936) Johnson-West 1949 = Allan Chester Johnson and Louis C. West, Byzantine Egypt: Economic Studies (Princeton, 1949) Jones 1937 = A. H. M. Jones, The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces (Oxford, 1937) Kammerer 1929 — A. Kammerer, Petra et la Nabatcue: L'Arabie Petree et les Arabes du Nord dans leurs rapports avec la Syrie et la Palestine jusqu'a I'lslam, Vols. 1—11 (Paris, 1929-1930) Kirk 1 9 3 7 — G. E . Kirk, "Era-Problems in the Greek Inscriptions of the Southern Desert," Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society 1 7 (1937) 2 0 9 - 2 1 7 Kraemer-Lewis 1938 = Casper J . Kraemer, J r . and N. Lewis, " A Divorce Agreement from Southern Palestine," Transactions of the American Philological Association 69 (1938) 1 1 7 - 1 3 3 Kreller 1 9 1 9 = H. Kreller, Erbrechtliche Untersuchungen auf Grund der graeco-aegyptischen Papyrusurkunden (Leipzig and Berlin, 19x9) Kubitschek 1928 — Wilhelm Kubitschek, Grundriss der antiken Zeitrechnung. Handbuch der klassischen Alterti(,mswissenschaft begr. v. Iwan von Mutter, 1 (Munich, 1928) Lane 1880 = E . W. Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (Dutton, 1880) L e v y 1 9 2 5 = E . Levy, Der Hergang der romischen Ehescheidung (Weimar, 1925) Liddell-Scott-Jones = H. G. Liddell and R. Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon. New edition by H. S. Jones (Oxford, 1925-1940) Maspero 1 9 1 2 = Jean Maspero, Organisation militaire de I'Egypte byzantine (Paris, 1 9 1 2 ) Mayerson 1955 = Philip Mayerson, "Arid Zone Farming in Antiquity." New York University Dissertation, 1955 (Typescript on file in New York University Library) Meinersmann 1 9 2 7 = B. Meinersmann, Die lateinischen Worter und Namen in den griechischen Papyri. Papyrusinstitut der Universitatsbibliothek in Heidelberg, Studien zur Epigraphik und Papyruskunde hrsg. von F. Bilabel, Band 1, Schrift 1 (Leipzig, 1927) Meyer 1907 = Martin A. Meyer, History of the City of Gaza. Columbia University Oriental Studies (New York, 1907) Miller 1944 = Madeleine S. Miller and J . Lane Miller, Encyclopedia of Bible Life (New York, 1944)

xix

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Mitteis-Wilcken 1 9 1 2 — L . Mitteis and U. Wilcken, Grundzuge und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde. 1, Historische Teil: a. Grundziige, b. Chrestomathie; 11, Juristische Teil: a. Grundzuge, b. Chrestomathie (Leipzig and Berlin, 1 9 1 2 ) Montevecchi 1 9 3 5 — Orsolina Montevecchi, " I contratti de matrimonio e gli atti di divorzia," Aegyptus 1 6 (1936) 3 - 8 3 Moritz 1 9 1 6 = B . Moritz, Der Sinaikult in heidnischer Zeit. Konigliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen. Abhandlungen. Phil.hist. Klasse, Bd. 16, Nr. 2 (Berlin, 1 9 1 6 ) Musil 1908 = Alois Musil, Arabia Petraea. 3 vols, in 4 (Vienna, 1907-1908) O G I S = W . Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci inscriptiones selecti (Leipzig, 1903-1905) Olsson 1 9 2 5 = Bror Olsson, Papyrusbriefe aus der frilhesten Romerzeit (Uppsala, 1 9 2 5 ) PAdler = E . N. Adler, J . G. Tait, F . M. Heichelheim, and F . L . Griffith, The Adler Papyri (Oxford and London, 1939) P A m h = B . P. Grenfell and A . S. Hunt, The Amherst Papyri, Being an Account of the Greek Papyri in the Collection of the Right Hon. Lord Amherst of Hackney, Parts 1-11 (London, 1900, 1 9 0 1 ) Palmer 1 8 7 1 — E . H. Palmer, The Desert of the Exodus, Vols. 1-11 (Cambridge, 1 8 7 1 ) PBerl Leihg — T . Kalen, Berliner Leihga.be griechischer Papyri. Uppsala Universitets Arsskrift, 1 9 3 2 . Filosofi Sprakvetenskap och Historiska Vetenskaper, B d . 1 PBrem — U . Wilcken, Die Bremer Papyri. Abhandlungen der preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Jahrgang 1936. Phil.hist. Klasse, Nr. 2 PCairo Masp — J e a n Maspero, Papyrus grecs d'epoque byzantine, Vols, I - I I I . Catalogue general des antiquites egyptiennes du musee du Caire, Nos. 6 7 0 0 1 - 6 7 3 5 9 (Cairo, 1 9 1 1 - 1 9 1 6 ) PCairo Zen = C. C. Edgar, Zenon Papyri. Catalogue general des antiquites egyptiennes dumusee du Caire, Vols, l x x i x (1925), L x x x i l (1926), l x x x v (1928), x c ( 1 9 3 1 ) (Cairo) PCol = W . L . Westermann, C. W . Keyes and others, Zenon Papyri, Vols. 1-11 (New York, 1 9 3 4 - 1 9 4 0 ) P E R F = Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer: Fiihrer durch die Ausstellung (Vienna, 1894) PFlor = G. Vitelli and D. Comparetti, Papiri fiorentini, Vols, i - i i i . Supplementi fdolngici-storici ai "Monumenti antichi," Papiri grecoegizii (Milan, 1 9 0 8 - 1 9 1 5 ) PGiss — E . Kornemann, O. Eger, and P. M. Meyer, Griechische

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Papyri im Museum des oberhessischen Geschichtsverein zu Giessen, Vol. i (Leipzig and Berlin, 1 9 x 0 - 1 9 1 2 ) PGrenf 1 = B . P. Grenfell, An Alexandrian Erotic Fragment and Other Greek Papyri, Chiefiy Ptolemaic. Greek Papyri, Series 1 (Oxford, 1896) PGrenf 11 — B . P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt, New Classical Fragments and Other Greek and Latin Papyri. Greek Papyri, Series 11 (Oxford, 1897) Pharr 1 9 5 2 = Clyde Pharr, The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions. A translation with commentary, glossary, and bibliography (Princeton, 1952) PHarris = J . E . Powell, The Rendel Harris Papyri 0/ Woodbrooke College, Birmingham (Cambridge, 1936) P l a n d == K . Kalbfleisch and others, Papyti Iandanae, fasc. i - v i i i (Leipzig, 1 9 1 2 - 1 9 3 8 ) PLips = L . Mitteis, Griechische Urkunden der Papyrussammlung zu Leipzig (Leipzig, 1906) PLond — F . G. Kenyon and H. I. Bell, Greek Papyri in the British Museum'. Catalogue with Texts, Vols, i - v (London, 1 8 9 3 - 1 9 1 7 ) PMich = C. C. Edgar, A . E . R . Boak, J . G. Winter, H. C. Youtie and others, Michigan Papyri, Vols, i - v i i i (Ann Arbor, 1 9 3 1 - 1 9 5 1 ) PMon = A . Heisenberg and L . Wenger, Byzantinische Papyri in der K. Hof- und Staatsbibliothek zu Munchen (Leipzig and Berlin, 1914) POslo = S. Eitrem and L . Amundsen, Papyri Osloenses, fasc. I - I I I (Oslo, 1 9 2 5 - 1 9 3 6 ) P O x y — B . P. Grenfell, A . S. Hunt and others, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Vols, i - x x i i (London, 1 8 9 8 - 1 9 5 4 ) P P a r = B. de Presle and E . Egger, Les papyrus grecs du Musee du Louvre et de la Bibliotheque Imperiale. Notices et extraits des manuscrits grecs de la Bibliotheque Imperiale, Vol. 1 8 . 2 (Paris, 1865) PPetrie = J . P. Mahaffy and J . G. S m y l y , The Flinders Petrie Papyri, Parts i-nr. Royal Irish Academy, Cunningham Memoirs, Nos. 8 (1891), 9 (1893), 1 1 (1905) (Dublin) PPrinceton = A . C. Johnson and others, Papyri in the Princeton University Collections, Vols. 1-11 (Baltimore and Princeton, 1931-1936) Preisigke, Namenbuch = F. Preisigke, Namenbuch enthaltend alle . . . Menschennamen, soweit sie in griechischen Urkunden . . . Agyptens sich vorfinden (Heidelberg, 1922) Preisigke, Worterbuch = F . Preisigke and E . Kiessling, Worterbuch der griechischen Papyrusurkunden . . . Inschrijten, Aufschriften,

xxi

xxii

L I S T

OF

A B B R E V I A T I O N S

Ostraka, Mumienschilder usw. aus Agypten, Vols, I - I V . I (Berlin, 1925-1944) Prevost 1 9 3 6 = Le Sinai hier . . . aujourd'hui: etude topographique, biblique, historique, archeologique, publiee sous la direction de L. Prevost (Paris, 1936) Pringsheim 1950 = F . Pringsheim, The Greek Law of Sale (Weimar, 1950) PRoss-Georg = G. Zereteli and others, Papyri russischer and georgischer Sammlungen. Vols, i - v (Tiflis, 1 9 2 5 - 1 9 3 5 ) P S I = G. Vitelli, M. Norsa and others, Papiri greci e latini, Vols. 1—XIII. Pubblicazioni della Societa italiana per la ricerca dei papiri greci e latini in Egitto (Florence, 1 9 1 2 - 1 9 5 3 ) PSchott-Reinhardt = C. H. Becker, Papyri Schott-Reinhardt, Vol. 1. Veroffentlichungen aus der Heidelberger Papyrus-Sammlung I I I . I (Heidelberg, 1906) PSoc Athen = G. A . Petropoulos, Papyri Societatis Archaeologicae Atheniensis (Athens, 1939) PStrass — F. Preisigke, Griechische Papyrus der kaiserlichen Universitats- und Landesbibliothek zu Strassburg, Vols. 1-11 (Leipzig, 19x2-1920) PWarren = M. David, B. A . van Groningen, and J . C. van Oven, The Warren Papyri. Papyrologica Lugduno-Batava, Institutum papyrologicum Universitatis Lugduno-Batavae, Vol. 1 (Leyden, 1 9 4 1 ) PWiirzb = U. Wilcken, Mitteilungen aus der Wiirzburger Papyrussammhmg. Abhandlungen der preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Jahrgang 1933. Phil.-hist. Klasse, Nr. 6 R E = Real-Enzyklopddie d. classischen Altertumswissenschajt, hrsg. von A . Pauly, G. Wissowa, u. W . Kroll (Stuttgart, 1 8 9 4 - 1 9 5 5 ) Rostovtzeff 1 9 3 2 = M. Rostovtzeff, Caravan Cities, translated by D. and T. Talbot Rice (Oxford, 1932) Rouillard 1928 — G. Rouillard, L'administration civile de I'Egypte byzantine, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1928) S B = F . Preisigke and F . Bilabel, Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Agypten, Vols, i - v (Strasbourg, Berlin, and Heidelberg, 1913-1950) Schnebel 1 9 2 5 = M. Schnebel, Die Landwirtschaft im hellenistischen Agypten. 1, Der Betrieb der Landwirtschaft. Miinchener Beitrage, zur Papyrusforschung and antiken Rechtsgeschichte, H. 7 (Munich, 1925) Schubart 1920 = Wilhelm Schubart, "Bruchstiicke zweier Urkunden aus der Kirche zu Hafir el-'Audscha," chapter 1 3 of Wiegand 1920 (q.v.)

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Scliwabe 1 9 3 8 = M. Schwabe, " W r i t of Manumission among Papyri in c Auja-el-Hafir in Southern Palestine," Magnes Memorial Volume (Jerusalem, 1938) in Hebrew Scramuzza 1 9 3 7 = V . M. Scramuzza, Roman Sicily, An Economic Survey of Ancient Rome, edited b y T. Frank, Vol. in, 2 2 5 - 3 7 6 (Baltimore, 1 9 3 7 ) S E G — Supplementum epigraplncum Graecmn Sophocles = E . A . Sophocles, Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine Periods (Cambridge, 1 9 1 4 ) Sprangling 1 9 3 9 = M. Sprangling, " F r o m Persian to Arabic," American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 56 (1939) 175-224 Stud Pal — C. Wessely, Studien zur Palaeographie und Papyruskwide, 2 3 vols. (Leipzig, 1 9 0 1 - 1 9 2 4 ) Association T A P A = Transactions of the American Philological Taubenschlag 1 9 5 5 = R . Taubenschlag, The Law of Greco-Roman Egypt in the Light of the Papyri (332 b . c . - a . d . 640), 2nd ed. (Warsaw, 1 9 5 5 ) Thompson 1 9 1 2 = Sir E d w a r d Maunde Thompson, An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography (Oxford, 1 9 1 2 ) Vasiliev 1 9 2 8 = A . A . Vasiliev, History of the Byzantine Empire, translated from the Russian b y Mrs. S. Ragozin. University of Wisconsin Studies in the Social Sciences and Historj^, Nos. 1 3 - 1 4 . Vols, I-II (Madison, 1 9 2 8 - 1 9 2 9 ) Wallace 1 9 3 8 — Sherman L e R o y Wallace, Taxation in Egypt from Atigustus to Diocletian (Princeton, 1938) Welles 1 9 3 8 — C. B . Welles, Gerasa, City of the Decapolis: The Inscriptions (New Haven, 1938) West-Johnson 1 9 4 4 = L . West and A . C. Johnson, Currency in Roman and Byzantine Egypt (Princeton, 1944) Westermann 1948 = William Linn Westermann, " T h e Paramone as General Service Contract," Journal of Juristic Papyrology 2 (1948) 9 - 5 0 Wiegand 1920 = Theodore Wiegand, Sinai. Wissenschaftliche Veroffentlichungen des deutsch-tiirkischen Denkmalschutz-Kommandos, H e f t x (Berlin and Leipzig, 1920) Winlock-Crum 1 9 2 6 = H. E . Winlock and W . E . Crum, The Monastery of Epiphanius at Thebes, Vols. 1-11 (New Y o r k , 1926) Wooley-Lawrence 1 9 3 6 = C. Leonard Wooley and T . E . Lawrence, The Wilderness of Zin. With an Introduction b y Sir Frederick Kenyon and a chapter on the Greek Inscriptions b y M. N . Tod (New Y o r k , 1936)

xxiii

Introduction

χ The Nature of the Find: Storerooms and Archives a. The Soldiers' Archive b. The Church Archive of the Early Seventh Century c. The Archive of George son of Patrick d. The Arab Archive e. The Literary Archive 2 The Churches 3 Education 4 The History of Nessana a. The Name b. The Fifth Century c. The Period of the Soldiers' Archive d. Population Changes in the Sixth Century e. Building and Business in the Sixth Century f. The Early Seventh Century g . The Post-Conquest Period 5 Dating Systems 6 Width of the Papyrus Roll

INTRODUCTION § ι. THE NATURE OF THE FIND: STOREROOMS AND ARCHIVES The Nessana papyri owe their preservation to a deep-seated reluctance to destroy written material of any sort. It is understandable that religious works, especially those containing the name of a deity, should be preserved even after their usefulness is at an end, but there is in modern eyes little justification for indefinitely holding on to obsolete legal papers, ephemeral letters or accounts, and the like. Mere inertia, of the sort which still clutters attics, is not the sole answer, for these ancient papers were taken from various places and deliberately thrown into storerooms to be forgotten. The practice implies respect or even reverence for writing as such and can be paralleled elsewhere. A remarkable instance of it is in the huge collection of Hebrew manuscripts found at the turn of the century in the attic of an old synagogue in Cairo (see Gottheil-Worrell, Fragments from the Cairo Genizeht University of Michigan Humanistic Series, xiii, p. xi), which was probably stored away ( genizeh means store or treasure) until such time as it could be ceremonially buried, but as at Nessana there seems to have been no urgency in the use of space and the collections were permitted to remain for several centuries. The first papyri were discovered by Colt in the course of clearing out Room 3 in the Church of Mar-y Mother of God, then called the South Church. The deposit, which was mixed with all sorts of refuse, was smaller than that found later, but because of the totally unexpected nature of the find and the urgent need of obtaining containers to house it, there is some confusion in the excavation daybook as to the precise number found. Colt's recollection in 1949 was that it consisted "mostly of large fragments and badly decayed rolls/' but in a letter to me dated February 15, 1935, he stated that "there were some six rolls and parts of rolls, and many small fragments." The papyri were packed in two or three shoe boxes and labeled SC {for South Church) or II 3 (for Room 3 of the second, or South, church). Since the boxes used for the later find in the North Church were not labeled, it is evident that only those specifically marked SC or II 3 can be ascribed to the St. Mary genizeh. The storeroom here, like the rest of the South Church, had been pretty thoroughly plundered by the Turks in their search for building stones and consequently less debris covered this genizeh than that of the North Church. It is likely, moreover, that some papyri were discovered in the process of removing the stones, and that they were discarded or destroyed, except for the two scraps (121 and 122) which found their way into more appreciative German hands and ultimately into publication in 1920. There is nothing to distinguish the St. Mary's documents externally from the others, but by careful checking of the labels attached to them at various times it is certain that the following large pieces (corresponding to Colt's "some six rolls and parts of rolls") came from the genizeh in that church: 16, 18, 21, 22, 23, 28, 31, 37. With the possible exception of the last, they form a homogeneous group, all belonging to the sixth 2*

4

I N T R O D U C T I O N

century archive dealing with property rights, and even the last (with documents written on both sides and one, 37, quite dissimilar in content) probably was part of the group. The fragments are too small to offer much independent evidence but several mention the name Flavius and all deal with economic and legal matters of the same type as those with which the larger pieces are concerned. It seems safe then to say that all of the papyri, large and small, belonged to the soldiers' archive (for which see below) and that, inasmuch as the dated pieces range from 512 to 590, the whole collection was written in the course of the sixth century and thrown into Room 3 as a unit shortly before 600. The name Elias recurs frequently in this archive and suggests that it may have been the papers of a family group, but I am not able to define the relationship. The fragments are 104, 114, 121, 122, 126, 127, 139, 140, 144. The second and by far the larger group of papyri was located in the monastery church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, called by the excavators the North Church. The genizeh was a small room (number 8) containing in the northwest corner a small cupboard. Because of their theory that the papyri formed a systematic collection, the excavators were puzzled by the lack of adequate space for "filing" and suggested that Room 7, which contained in its north wall three fine cupboards, was the one actually used. But the purpose of the deposit was permanent disposal, not temporary shelving, and nothing more was necessary than a small room not otherwise in use. The condition of the papyri suggests that even before the roof collapsed they had been subject to damage or neglect. This was marked in the case of some of the literary codices, a few of which had preserved only a quarter or half; they may have been incomplete or irreparably damaged when thrown away. The documents published here are for the most part in deplorable shape: very few are complete, most exhibit surface damage of various degrees of severity and the extraordinary number of small pieces and scraps which cannot be joined is evidence of the fact that at times the whole storeroom was subjected to rigorous treatment of one sort or another. There are a number of large pieces wholly or almost wholly blank and one may hazard a guess that in emergencies the waste material was turned over by some person in search of a blank sheet of papyrus. Finally, the presence of miscellaneous debris — seeds, dung, shavings, bones, etc. — is clear evidence of the fact that the storeroom or genizeh was available for refuse as well as sacred manuscripts. Colt suggests that one reason for the neglect of Room 8 was the fact that its partially palm-thatched roof was structurally weak and in danger of collapse. A distinction is to be drawn between genizeh and archive. The former is the storeroom in which papers are "treasured," the latter a collection of papers so treasured. In Nessana there were, as already stated, two genizehs: Room 3 in the Church of St. Mary, containing a very small and homogeneous collection, and Room 8 in the Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, containing a large, widely assorted amount of material. There were at least five distinguishable archives: a collection of legal documents dealing with the business affairs of soldiers; a handful of personal papers dealing with Patrick son of Sergius; a somewhat larger group, written almost a century later but relating to the affairs of some of Patrick's descendants; a miscellaneous assortment of

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5

documents stemming from the Arab administration, and a small but varied collection of literary and religious books (almost all of which have already been published as PColt ii) . There were, quite possibly, more storehouses in the ancient town and there were certainly more "archives," for there are traces of these in small related groups like those written in Arabic and in the very large number of fragments too tiny to deserve publication. a. The Soldiers' Archive Seventeen papyri (14-30) are so distinctive in form and content that they are certainly to be regarded as an archive. Formal documents, drawn up in legal phraseology and dated in proper style, they record a series of economic transactions involving soldiers from the camp at Nessana. Inasmuch as the dates range over the century from sometime before 505 (14) to 596 (30) and a number of individuals are involved, it is clear that we have here not the files of a private individual or family but of the military unit called in 15 the "Company of the Most Loyal Theodosians.'' None of the documents filed with the company records by the soldiers had any military pertinence. All were personal: three money loans(26,27,28), three legal papers (15, 19, 29), two marriages (18,20), two inheritances (22, 30), two divisions of property (16, 21), a bill of sale (23), a notice to transfer taxes (24), and three contracts whose precise nature cannot be determined (14, 17, 25). The collection presupposes that military headquarters provided a depository for some of the more important papers of its members. Members of the staff may even have been instrumental in drawing up some of them: thus in 19 the scriniarius, through a subordinate, executes an affidavit, and in 25 an officer( ?) notarizes a contract. But in the other pieces information is lacking on this point and 24 was actually drawn up outside the camp, in Elusa. The fact that the transactions are spread over so long a period and that there is very little duplication in names suggests that the camp consti­ tuted itself a sort of Record Office. The date of abandonment, or at least of deposit in the genizeh, can be fixed rather closely and has some significance. One of the features which causes this archive to stand out prominently from the rest of the papyri is the formalism of the dating and we can put these seventeen pieces at least in strict chronological order. The latest (30) is dated September 13, 596, and it seems that by this time the company had been demobilized, for the principals are no longer characterized as soldiers. According to the evidence studied in 29 it seems possible that this demobilization took place in or before 590. The political lines in Palestine were shifting, Persian pressure was mounting and according to Hitti 1951.404 the imperial subsidy from Byzantium was cut off in 582. We may date the end of the numerus then between 582 and 590 and the abandonment of the records some time after 596. These dates may have some connection with events taking place in the church, for the abbot of the monastery, Sergius son of Patrick, died February 10, 592. Members of his family had been soldiers and it may be that his son, who succeeded him (44 introd.), arranged for the preservation of the papers in Room 8. There may also be some connection with the intensive building operation which took place in 601.

6

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Why some of the papers were deposited in the Church of Mary Mother of God is not clear. They appear to have nothing in common (the recurrence of the names Ania and Sergius does not indicate identity) and there is no apparent reason for their being separated from the rest. But the date of deposition fits chronologically, for the church was built sometime around 601. The soldiers' archive was undoubtedly much larger than that which we now have. The present collection has in it a number of pieces and fragments which may have belonged to it but about which there is more or less doubt. The most likely are 33 and 34 both of which mention soldiers but have no dates or identifiable names. Only the elaborate form recommends 31, and the slim evidence from κατά ττρόσταξιν is all that can be said for 32. The four pieces 35-38 deal with military records and contain some tentative identification of persons but while the data they afford is of considerable interest, they cannot with any certainty be connected with the archive. The fragments are separately described as minor documents, and of these 97 to 144 for various reasons are assigned to the archive of the soldiers. Other possibilities are suggested in the various introductions. b. The Church Archive of the Early Seventh Century Five papyri, three of them dated, came from the papers of Patrick son of Sergius, abbot of St. Sergius: 44, 45, 46, 47, 53. They are trivial notes on personal and financial matters, and add little to our knowledge of the town except in details, which are discussed in the introductions and notes. Patrick succeeded his father Sergius as abbot (although perhaps not immediately after the latter's death in 592) and it was under his management that the very considerable building program in the church was carried out. In fact, although it is probably only coincidence, the only three dated papyri, 44, 45 and 46, come from precisely that period (598-605). Patrick died in 628, as we know from the tombstone which covered his grave in the church and there is no way of ascertaining whether his papers found their way into Room 8 after his death or sometime after 605. In the latter case, both this archive and that of the soldiers might have been discarded together. Together with the papers are grouped a small collection (48-54) of somewhat similar pieces from a church milieu. They seem however to have nothing certainly in common with Patrick's documents or with each other. Perhaps 30 (dated 596) belongs here too instead of with the former archive, since it deals with a priest and makes no mention of soldiers. c. The Archive of George son of Patrick Close analysis of a considerable number of late seventh century papyri reveals some common features centering about a few individuals prominent in the church and also in the administration. Chief of these are George son of Patrick and his son Sergius. The argument which leads to the conclusion that the documents were collected by George and discarded, just before 700, runs as follows. Sergius son of George and grandson of Patrick —the full name appears in 56.18 and is implied in the poll-tax register 76.27-28—was priest of SS. Sergius and Bacchus in the year 689 (57), also abbot according to 77.io, and at the same time a large land-

I N T R O D U C T I O N

7

owner (58). In the former capacities, he was associated with subordinate members of the church hierarchy in witnessing the dissolution of a labor contract and a marriage (56,57), in the latter with an entirely different group of fellow landowners to whom he paid the taxes on his land (58). He was also, although a priest, subject to poll tax (76) as well as to other imposts (77). His recorded activities, according to the papyri (56-59 and 76) seem to be closely confined to the years 682-689. We have samples of his hand writing in 55 and 57, for he acted as scribe and witness. George son of Patrick appears as money lender in 55 and probably also in 59, the dates of which, inferred from other papyri in which his agent Sergius appears, seem to be April Xi3 682, and October 684. There is a possibility that he may be the man who set up a memorial column to himself and his wife in the Church of St. Sergius (Inscr. 77). The inscription on the column is, however, undated; and since the latest epigraphical date at Nessana is 630, it is hazardous to suggest identification. But George was cited on the column as ήγούμενος (of St. Sergius, according to the discoverer's inference) and may be father of Sergius, and his predecessor as head of the church. In that event he probably died sometime between October 684, the date of 59, and 685-689, the dates of the two papyri 57 and 77 in which Sergius is titled priest and abbot. If these assumptions are correct, we have evidence for the activities of the mem bers of one family for over a century. The data summarized above and in the introduction to 44 would then be filled out as follows: Patrick, father of Sergius, lived about 560. Sergius his son, priest and abbot of St. Sergius, died February 10, 592. Patrick son of Sergius, succeeding his father as priest and abbot, died July 24, 628. George son of Patrick, the abbot whose memorial column had no date, would be placed about 650, but, as suggested above, he was still living in 684 and the time span seems rather long. Sergius son of George must have become abbot around 689 but in any case was active around 682—690. There seems to be a connection among the various papyri which embody requisitions upon the community. They fall into three groups: a. those addressed, in typical peremptory tone, by the governor to the community at large or, better, to the responsible members of the community (TOTS crrro Νεστάνωυ): the requisitions of wheat and oil 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67 (also 64 which though not from Nessana follows the identical form) and the order for a guide 73. b. one addressed by the governor, in similar style, to George of Nessana: a demand for a guide 72. (The similarity, in form and substance of 72 and 73 is to be noted.) c. those addressed to George the manager (διοικητής) by someone less authoritative than the governor but still a superior: requests for chaff (68), poll tax(70) and laborers (74). This man is definitely not the governor, for he does not use the title σύμβουλος as elsewhere; his name is also George and the style of his address (τω δεσπότη μου κυρίω and Tcp γνησίω φίλω) as well as the use of the title ελάχιστος implies that he is more

8

I N T R O D U C T I O N

nearly of the same rank as the dioecetes and perhaps a Christian. He was probably a church dignitary like the Samuel who in 75 acts as intermediary, between the various community leaders and the provincial governor. It is almost inevitable to regard the addressee of 72 and 73 as the same: the relationship between the first two groups is very close; the two papyri are in form practically identical and it would be natural for a bureaucrat to regard it of small moment whether he were addressing the community as a whole or its leading member; finally the usage in 59-3 (Γεωργίω Πατρικίου Νεστά[υω]) lends a bit of support. I believe then that (a) and (b) should be combined —all were sent to "George of Nestana" and filed by him. Less cogent, but still suggestive, is the idea that the George of Nessana of (b) is the same man as the dioecetes of (c). The difference in time between the two sets of papyrus reflects the difference in point of view between the government official who may or may not concern himself with local personnel and the members of the local group, who certainly do. There is here nothing more than probability, but I incline to the view that the identification is probable despite the fact that George is a very common name in Nessana—there are listed in the polls among heads of families alone about a dozen so named. Finally, although this may carry probability too far, I believe that the George of Nessana, the dioecetes George, and George son of Patrick are all one and the same, a conclusion which again is supported by 59.3. We then find that the whole file of papers dealing with the economic as well as financial problems of Nessana seems to have stemmed from the various activities of George son of Patrick and that his son Sergius discarded the papers sometime before 700. d. The Arab Archive Completely different from the rest of the papyri is a small but important group of pieces which reflect a completely Arab viewpoint. Those written in Arabic obviously belong here and a few written in Greek do not seem to fit anywhere else. It does not seem possible, however, to discern the person who collected the scrap 86 containing some Arabic names, the very important but still puzzling military records 92 and 93 and those written in Arabic. They may not be an "archive" but simply the result of chance acquisition. The total of post-Conquest pieces runs to more than forty papyri (55-96) some of which are of the first importance. More than half are concerned with administration (nineteen with taxation, three with compulsory service, and two with military affairs). Some fifteen—undated and a few possibly belonging to earlier groups—deal with business and farming, and two are personal. The Church contributed only two, but doubtless in the person of its priests was responsible for many of the rest. It may be worth noting that of the large number of scraps and fragments found in the storerooms only two (158, 159) can be assigned to this period. Perhaps this indicates that the deposit was sealed, by the collapse of the roof, not long after these documents were deposited. e. The literary Archive The more conspicuous literary and religious texts have already been published by Hettich and Casson in Nessana 11. They do not constitute a

I N T R O D U C T I O N

9

real archive but are merely books which had been damaged or for which no further need was felt and so could most properly be disposed of in the church storeroom. All were found by Colt in the St. Sergius genizeh. The published works fall into two categories: textbooks and theological manuscripts. None can be accurately dated—on the contrary, they are placed within rather narrow chronological limits by the evidence of the papyri with which they were found. On palaeographical grounds Hettich and Casson date the school and legal texts sixthseventh century and the religious works somewhat later, seventh-eighth. It would seem better now to date nothing after 700. In addition there is a fragment of a religious work written in Syriac. Theodore Gaster was kind enough to look the piece over and he reports that too little remains to make identification secure but it seems to have come from one of the hymns or homilies read in church. On purely palaeographical grounds Gaster dates it seventheighth century, and since 700 seems a terminal date for this "archive," it can better be restricted to the seventh. Only two lines yield complete sense, and that indeed very little, but we are able to perceive meter (the heptasyllabic used by Ephraim the Syrian) and to realize that some of the clerical persons in Nessana were literate in Syriac as well as Greek. Since Syriac is Aramaic as applied to Christian literature, this is indeed not surprising. § 2. T H E C H U R C H E S The destruction wrought by the Turks in converting an ancient ruin into an administrative center was so severe that in places nothing at all remains and we are forced to interpret the accounts of explorers who visited the site prior to 1914. This is particularly true of what was once the most conspicuous part of Nessana, its churches. i. The North Church is not mentioned by any of the visitors to 'Auja and it was only brought to light by the Turks in their search for building material. It was a complex structure, the result of much rebuilding. Briefly its history is as follows: a. The small Church of SS. Stephan and Sergius (Inscrs. 30, 32), later called the martyrium (Inscr. 38 from Room 14), was built on the site and in part with the masonry of an earlier fort sometime before 464 (Inscr. 35 from Room 10). In it were buried the priest Thomas who died November 6, 464, and the deacon Palladius, died December 1, 475 (Inscrs. 35 and 37). b. About a century later, as part of the great building plan inspired by Justinian, a church dedicated to SS. Sergius and Bacchus was added on the north to that of Stephan and Sergius and the whole apparently referred to as St. Sergius (e.g. 51 and elsewhere). The church must have been completed by 541, as Alt found in it an inscription of that date, but other inscriptions (24, 25) show that the martyrium continued in use after the expansion. Two burials date from this period: in the entrance hall of the church, that of Stephan son of Wa'il (f MarchApril 584, Inscr. 24) and in an aisle, that of the priest and abbot Sergius son of Patrick (f February 10, 592, Inscr. 12).

IO

I N T R O D U C T I O N

c. In 601 another extension took place with the addition of a baptistery on the east and a chapel on the north of the Sergius-Bacchus unit. The date is determined by an inscription (17) found in the completed baptistery. d. Other extensions—courts, galleries, and rooms—were added either in connection with the rebuilding of 601 or shortly after. Three burials, in the aisles of the church are assigned to this period: Stephan son of Obathos (f October 22, 605, Inscr. 13), Patrick son of Sergius (f July 24, 628, Inscr. 12) and Maria daughter of Sergius son of Patrick (f October 7, 630, Inscr. 14). This sketch, perhaps oversimplified and subject to correction in details by Kendall's analysis in Nessana 1, is yet of value in giving the background for the papyrus deposit. It makes clear how the oldest portion of the church was steadily reduced in importance as later additions were made and how finally an unneeded room (8) could be set aside for the accumulation of debris. It suggests also that the time of the deposit may well have coincided with the building activities which took place around 600-601. 2. The South ChurchloceAed prominently on the hill, was noted by all travelers. It was a superior structure, relying for its effect on sculpture rather than on marble, and built at one time as a unit rather than gradually, like the church to the north. The foundations, the pavement and the bases of columns remained in situ and presented a clear picture of a tri-apsidal church of the later type with a broad and straight-fronted chancel. This type of chancel was introduced in the second half of the sixth century and an inscription (92) on an abacus suggests that the actual date was 601. To the south was attached a chapel and three additional rooms. Unlike the North Church, this one contained no burials, and the presence of a room (3, just off the narthex) deemed appropriate for miscellaneous storage is so strange as to invite speculation. Since it was a new church, there could have been no antiquated or disused sections as there were in the old martyrium of the North Church and it would seem then that the small collection of papyri stored in Room 3 was considered still of value by someone, although at least one piece was some sixty years old. 3. Across the small wadi, which ran through the center of the village, and on the plain due east of the North Church, there were once the remains of a building about which there have come confusing reports. Nothing at all remained at the time the Colt Expedition worked at the site. Palmer in 1875 and La Grange in 1897 described the remains as those of a church but Musil in 1902 saw in them a khan or caravanserai. It was only after the site had been plundered by the Turks (who planned to erect a rest house in its place, but abandoned the idea, cemented up the floor and turned it into a watering tank) that Huntington in 1910 photographed it, and Wooley in 1914 took measurements and drew a ground plan. There can be no doubt that all of the travelers were describing the same complex and Colt suggests that actually two structures are involved, the mere northerly portion being the remains of a khan and, immediately to the south, the remains of a church. Papyrus evidence (in 31) proves that there were two khans in Nessana and one of them may very well be identified with the structure Musil saw.

I N T R O D U C T I O N

IX

4. Finally in the southeastern end of the town a church was cited by Fiske, La Grange, Musil and, possibly, Huntington. All of these accounts are earlier than 1910 and by 1914 Wooley was unable to see anything here. This church must have been dismantled in order to provide building stones for the three large Turkish structures. § 3. E D U C A T I O N Inasmuch as most of our information about Byzantine education comes either from the great centers or from the well-known literary figures of the period, the information afforded by the archives of this small village, although meager, is fresh and novel. Georgina Buckler in her chapter on Byzantine education in Baynes-Moss 1948. 200-220 makes a heroic attempt to encompass in short space the educational theory and practice of the whole Byzantine world and era, but the picture that emerges from the archives at Nessana is something different from hers. For one thing Buckler stresses the fact that education was general: "boys of all classes might, and frequently did, receive instruction from their babyhood to their twenties" (page 207) and cites with approval J. B. Bury's dictum "every boy and girl whose parents could afford to pay was educated." If this was true also in such a frontier area as the Negeb, we have no sign of it. There was undoubtedly some educational system, but it was probably centered in the monastic school, and to this was admitted none of the general public but only boys who were to be trained for the clerical life. So too the elaborate system of graduated instruction common in the period has left no trace in Nessana: the fundamentals (reading and writing) for those aged about 6-8; "grammar" (literature of the classical period, especially Homer, as a corrective to the vulgar speech) for the real learners, aged 10—12; and finally the higher education centering about "rhetoric" (say, public life), philosophy (speculation and argumentation) or the more specialized fields of medicine or law or theology. No doubt some of the wealthier members of the community took advantage of the fact that four of the great university cities of the ancient world were near at hand—Gaza, famous for its school of politics; Berytus until the disastrous earthquake of 551 preeminent in law and under the special patronage of the Emperor Justinian; Caesarea, with its great library, a center for theology; and, greatest of all, Alexandria, specializing in all fields—and that only short distances farther were two more university towns, Antioch and Edessa, the latter prominent in the great controversies on the nature of Christ. All of the universities declined in importance as the Arabs developed their own educational system but all were still at the height of their influence during most of the period in which the papyri were written. In fact one may almost take it for granted that the clerks who drew up the legal documents in the soldiers' archive were indirectly influenced by the training inculcated in Gaza and Berytus. More than this it is impossible to say, as there is no positive evidence that any member of any prominent family in Nessana studied in a university. And yet the meager evidence available does throw some light on the situation in Nessana, the more welcome because "it is surprising how little we know of Byzantine

12

INTRODUCTION

literary education in the provincial centres of the Empire" (Baynes-Moss 1948.214) and presumably how much less in the towns and villages. What is the nature of the books which were read in Nessana? They fall into two types: theology. The Gospel according to John (3, 4), Paul's letters (5), the correspondence between Christ and Abgar (7), the legend of the miraculous life and martyrdom of St. George of Cappadocia (6), questions and answers on the nature of Christian faith (9), two homilies, one on Genesis (10) and another in Syriac verse. textbooks'. The Aeneid (2), two dictionaries, one to the Aeneid (1) the other general (8), and a treatise on the law dealing with water transport (11).

This catalogue is revealing. There is no classical Greek literature, no hint even of Homer. The severe limitations in scope indicate a practical purpose and the concentration on the didactic shows what that purpose was. We have in essence a small library of textbooks designed for use in teaching monks or churchmen, in other words the equipment of a monastic school located presumably in St. Sergius. The preoccupation with the scriptures and with works of faith and inspiration is marked and the very absence of pagan literature becomes important. Moreover, since the Byzantine world was a bookish one, and since textbooks were produced in great quantity on every conceivable subject, the restriction in scope shows that the choice was deliberately narrow. The school was very orthodox. In this context the presence of Vergil, or indeed of any Latin at all, demands explanation. Before c. 570 some knowledge of Latin was desirable if not essential to ambitious members of the imperial bureaucracy, but after that date it would have been considered ostentatious. The tendency can be observed in the legislation of Justinian, for the Novels show growing disuse of Latin even in the field in which the language was most pertinent—nearly all of the novels except those applying to Italy and Africa, were drawn up in Greek. Why then Vergil in Nessana ? The Aeneid was used as a textbook by students who knew Greek and were learning Latin. But the text before them was decidedly inferior: "the errors and variants in 1" according to Hettich and Casson, Nessana 11. 12 "are so numerous that the scribe must either have been extraordinarily careless or extremely ignorant. If he was careless, there is no apparent reason why he was chosen for the task. It is better to assume that he was almost completely innocent of Latin and relatively illiterate in Greek, and that he was copying from a worn and faulty exemplar." A contemporary teacher was aware of the nature of his text and made a number of corrections which reveal both his linguistic competence and his unwillingness to carry his editing beyond the first two books. The subject could not have been very important and yet it must have been taught. The only reason for its inclusion in the curriculum was religious—the great Roman poet "almost a Christian" was a fit subject for study by those being educated for the clerical life. Two centuries before, Jerome in his travels in Palestine and as rector of a monastery in Bethlehem had championed the study of Vergil, and it is not unlikely that the textbook used in Nessana was a descendant, many times removed, of copies made as a result of Jerome's enthusiasm. Latin

I N T R O D U C T I O N

13

never established itself in the East —its only usefulness lay in the law or in theology, and even in the former field Greek was predominant —and we have an instance of its subordination in the rather half-hearted attempt to perpetuate it in a Negeb village school. Two other texts call for comment. The exchange of letters between Christ and Abgar, ruler of Edessa (7), and the Syriac homily may attest the influence of the theological school in Edessa which played a leading part in the spread of early Christianity, which was prominent in the fifth century in the Christological controversy and which was much preoccupied in the fifth and sixth centuries, especially through the bishop Jacob, with organizing the Monophysite movement. It would be natural to see some impact from these movements on the church and community in Nessana. One last point about education. Byzantine elementary schools were much concerned with pronunciation and spelling, for the conflict between the classical and current usage was already serious. Conservative educators insisted on inculcating the traditional forms despite the fact that they were frequently obsolete. In the light of this phonetic struggle it may be better to regard such "illiterate/' "ignorant," "badly spelled" pieces as 56 and 57 as the work not of uneducated men—although it is possible that they were that also—but of persons who preferred the popular phonetic style to the cramping conservatism of classical booklearning. § 4 .

THE HISTORY OF NESSANA

a. The Name Nessana as the name of the ancient settlement had vanished completely until it was revealed in the papyri and while the ruins of the churches and fort had indicated to early explorers the existence of an inhabited site, all that could be said of it was that it was part of the expansion into the Negeb in Roman-Byzantine times. The variations in the writing of the name at first occasioned confusion but when they are arranged chronologically, they can be explained. In the soldiers' archive, that is, throughout the whole of the sixth century, by far the commonest usage is κώμη Νεσσανα (άττό κώμης Νεσσάνωυ 15-4; έν κώμη Νεσσάνοις 16.2, 21-5, 22-4, 24.2, 26.5, 27.3) and the inflection shows that Νεσσανα is a plural. The name is associated with the word camp or fort in the phrase άττό κάστρου Νεσάνων (16.4) and, in abbreviated references, κάστρον Νεσάνοον (19.χ, 29-4) while it is omitted as superfluous when κάστρου stands alone (20.7, 21.7, 22.6, 24-3, 31.38; cf. 46.2). Clearly the official name was Nessana Village and, exactly as in modern usage when a camp is located in or near a town, the name of the latter is applied to the former: the camp at Nessana Village became Camp Nessana. Spelling with single sigma occurs frequently: in the three Camp Nessana references just mentioned and in 35.i; 39.14; 45.2; 46.2; 51.3. In the late seventh century, both local (as in 58-5) and imperial bureaucrats (as in the entagia 60-67) favor the form Νεστανα (59-3, 70.ίο, 74.II, 76.ι). But in 55.3, 72.2, 6 and 73.2 the scribe reverts to Νεσανα, and in 75.8 a local scribe slips up on gender and number with εις Νεσαναν. The variants probably do not reflect indifference, carelessness or confusion, but are deliberate, and reveal various attempts to cope with the problem (still almost hopelessly unsolved) of representing Arabic sounds by Greek letters. As C. C. Torrey

14

INTRODUCTION

pointed out to me by letter, the Arabic documents (e.g. 60-67) give the name as Nessan and σ, σσ and στ are different ways of reproducing the Arabic sibilant. Before the conquest, when Hellenization of spelling was fashionable, the neuter plural ending was adopted and remained as long as the Greek alphabet was employed, but it seems clear that the earliest form, i.e. the Nabataean, like the latest, Arabic, must have been Nessan, not Nessana. The evidence of the name, therefore, indicates an origin in a Nabataean setting. The early history of the town, from its founding by Nabataeans and its various vicissitudes in the succeeding centuries as well as the story that can be told from the meager archaeological evidence, is sketched by H. D. Colt in the introduction to Nessana I. The papyrological evidence begins just about at the outset of the sixth century and continues almost to 700. In the course of these years, the little settlement produced, and left, a wealth of documentary and archaeological material which when interpreted becomes of considerable historical interest. For the period overlaps the era of the greatest of the eruptions of Arabs from the desert and throws light on some of the aspects of Islam before and after the Conquest. b. The Fifth Century Historical events were taking place outside Nessana that must to some extent have affected the town as early as the fourth century. The rising power of the Ghassanids in Syria as well as Persian aggressiveness in the north caused the Romans to review their frontier policy in the whole East and this reorganization involved the Negeb. The transfer of Legio X Fretensis from Jerusalem to Aqaba (Briinnow-Domaszewski 1909.275) shows that the danger zone here was farther to the south. The shift may be connected with the reorganizations of Diocletian or Constantine and an early fourth century date is then indicated. More important to the area was the political realignment in 359 when the province of Palestina Salutaris (later Tertia) was created by combining the limes Palestinae with the portion of the Negeb which had formed part of Provincia Arabia. The capital of the new province, Elusa, is now too ruined to justify excavation but reconnaissance by the Colt Expedition and the observations of Wooley-Lawrence 1936.123-126 suggest that the ruins of buildings extended over a wider area in the fourth century than before. But it was the extension of Christianity among the Arab peoples in Palestine, Syria, and the Negeb itself that was to affect Nessana, and this movement too reaches back to the fourth century. Professor Hitti tells me that it is increasingly apparent that the Arabs, not merely before but after Islam, were tremendously affected by Christian and Jewish doctrine and practice. Mohammed himself was impressed by the piety of the desert fathers whose knees were calloused by continuous prayer and whose lamps at midnight showed the devotion of their owners. In the fourth century, especially after Constantine's recognition in 313, the proselytizing power of Christianity really began to make itself felt: the Ghassanids in Syria and the Nabataeans, in Petra at least (Hitti 1951.382, 401), accepted the new faith. About 350 the monk Hilarion founded a church in Elusa, but this was missionary activity not an indication of wholesale conversion, for Jerome c. A.D. 390 in his biography of Hilarion (Comm. ad Jes. 15) mentions Elusa

I N T R O D U C T I O N

15

as a center of pagan, i.e. Nabataean, culture. Pagan inscriptions greatly outnumber Christian until the beginning of the sixth century. We may accordingly assume the introduction of Christianity into Nessana shortly after 400 and a slow increase in the number of converts throughout the fifth century. By the middle of the century there can be no doubt of the fact, because definitely before 464 there had been built on the highest point of the north end of the hill a chapel which the excavators were not only able to identify as a martyrium by the discovery in Room 16 of Inscr. 35 (τούτου του μαρτυρίου) and, in Room 14, of 37 (έν τούτφ τω άγίω τότΓφ), but also to date, for the inscription referred to two of the six burials found beneath the floors of the rooms: one of the priest Thomas on November 6, 464, the other of the deacon Palladius on December 1, 475. The chapel, then, in which six of the members of the Christian community were buried clearly was in existence before 464 and Christianity must have been introduced into Nessana in the first half of the fifth century. The identification of the small chapel as a martyrium is further confirmed by examination of the names written or scratched on the walls. Aside from the two burial inscriptions mentioned above and two invocations (36, 37) to the Holy Trinity there is a very interesting piece (38) described by Kirk and Welles as a litany or calendar of saints' days which deserves more detailed study by a specialist than I am competent to give, and a short fragment (43) referring to SS. Sergius and Stephan, both of which are concerned with martyrs. The latter two names are very common in Nessana and the occurrence here might in itself (though doubtfully) suggest that the martyrium in which Sergius and Stephan were addressed had in fact been erected for their worship. But in an adjoining entrance corridor the evidence becomes quite overpowering. Ignoring doubtful or trivial scribblings like 26, 28 and 29, two burials (24, 25) and two general invocations (31, 34), all of the inscriptions mention the saints together or (27) Stephan alone, and I have no doubt that the first chapel on the hill was called either the μαρτύριον or the Church of SS. Sergius and Stephan, and that 38, when satisfactorily studied, is likely to be a calendar of saints' days for the use of the local congregation. The personages listed—six martyrs, eight Fathers, and three Mothers—have names which with few exceptions are familiar in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, i.e. outside the local area. We may then turn to 30, a very interesting potpouri. Sixteen are individual inscriptions, "a confused mass of texts in a variety of hands" and half of them too difficult to yield sense, which nevertheless do make a valuable contribution to our knowledge. The two portions numbered (d) and (j) are particularly important and, like 38, deserve detailed study. These are lists of names (respectively 14 and 8) of persons both men and women who implore divine blessing—in (j) particularly that of Christ as well as of Sergius and Stephan. The names are obviously of persons, and of different groups, for no individual appears in both lists. Strikingly, of the twenty-one (one name cannot be deciphered) only a single one and that uncertainly restored, is Arabic. Nineteen are catalogued in Preisigke's Namenbuch as appearing in papyri from Egypt and the other

ι6

I N T R O D U C T I O N

three (Αττρικως, Θέσου, and Σελαμινος) are forms which might easily fit in that collection. What were groups of Egyptian Christians doing in the Chapel of SS. Sergius and Stephan in Nessana ? That they were really Egyptians and not Syrians is proved by (j) the last line of which gives the date "third indiction Choiak 23rd." This is, in all of the inscriptions, the sole appearance of the Egyptian calendar and I show below (§ 5) that its use is invariably associated with persons resident outside of Nessana and its province. On two occasions, then, pilgrims, men and women, traveling for protection in groups or caravans, certainly with Nabataean guides according to time-honored custom, passed through Nessana on their way from Egypt by the regular desert route via Elusa to Jerusalem. We cannot be sure of the exact time, for the indiction alone is indeterminate and the dated burial of Stephan son of WajIl in the same entrance hall (584, Inscr. 24) reminds us that sixth century activities are recorded here as well as fifth. But there can be no doubt that the early church in the Negeb came into existence under outside influence both from Egypt and Syria and that it was part of the sudden burst of Christianization which occurred throughout the Near East in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries. One more fact emerges. In the inscriptions found in the martyrium, only one Arabic name appears; all the rest are Hellenic or Biblical: Thomas the priest, Palladius the deacon, Sergius, Abraham, Stephan, Demetrius. It appears that Christianity came to Nessana by way of monks or missionaries, or both, settling in the desert among the Nabataean natives and gradually infecting them with the new spirit. That they did not necessarily come from great distances is shown by the career of Hilarion, already mentioned, who was born near Gaza about 290, educated in Alexandria, and converted (about 306); he thereupon returned home to live as a hermit in the lands on the EgyptianPalestine border, where for many years he exerted great influence on his neighbors. Another instance of infiltration, from Syria centuries later, is afforded by Inscr. 94 which records the benefactions of members of a wealthy and politically important family from Homs in Coele-Syria on September 7, 601. On the other, southern, portion of the hill that overlooks Nessana, are the remains of the imposing Byzantine fort that forms today the most prominent mark of the ancient settlement. The nature of the building, as Colt points out in Nessana 1, makes it clear that it was not the actual residence of soldiers but was used rather for the storage of arms and equipment and perhaps for offices and records. The expedition found nothing in the fort by which it could be dated. A date is, however, forthcoming from an entirely different source. In 15, written May 30, 512, in Rhinocorura, two soldiers living in that town but "a long time ago residents of Nessana" describe themselves as members of a regiment called "the very loyal Theodosians" and in the introduction to the papyrus I show that this indicates a unit organized under the second Theodosius (408-450) somewhere between 421 and 442, certainly before 450. It seems to me most likely that the building of the fort is connected with the activation of this unit and hence would fall sometime between 420-430. This precious datum and the death of Thomas the priest on November 6, 464, are keystones in the arch of the

I N T R O D U C T I O N

17

chronology of this period in Nessana and the only fixed points before the fuller evidence supplied later by the papyri. For the rest of the fifth century there is no specific data at Nessana, but a broad picture drawn by Wooley-Lawrence 47-48 is so apt that I quote it in full: "In the Byzantine period a deep and sudden change came over the whole aspect of Syria. The destruction of the Jewish and other little states of the East by the Romans gave Palestine for almost the first time in its history the fortune of some centuries of reasonably good government and unbroken peace. In these settled conditions Syria realized that potential wealth she always possesses. The people began to multiply, and under stress of new needs developed their land to its utmost. Reclamation schemes were set on foot, and the whole country was covered with a network of paved roads, having rest- and post-houses at intervals, and substantial bridges over every stream. The mud huts of the peasant farmers became solid homesteads; hamlets sprang up where had been an untrodden wilderness. The villages became towns, and the old Semitic collections of squalid houses were replaced by regularly planned cities on the Roman model, with shaded porticoes and colonnades leading to marble temples, luxurious public baths, and private houses as sumptuous as palaces. About the busy streets moved a cosmopolitan crowd—Jews, Phoenicians, Persians, Armenians, Arabs, speaking to one another a common Greek, but flaunting their unconverted Oriental taste in the weight and costliness of their ornaments, and the medley of brightest colours in their effeminate robes. From the Euphrates to the Red Sea the ruins of this period transcend those of the earlier times, and bear witness to a population more numerous and more wealthy than the land has seen before or since. It would not be astonishing if the increase of population and the improvement in agriculture had led to a certain migration southwards on the part of a people who had both the capital and the technical skill to develop the unpromising soil of the south country better than their ancestors had done. At the same time such migration would naturally follow the lines of trading routes on which economic conditions offered of themselves additional resources." We have already seen how this southward migration affected Nessana, and I would differ with the account only in the statement that it was at this late date that the extensive agricultural development took place—the farming of desert lands is quite different from those of the north and I see no reason for not giving credit for it to the Nabataeans, to whom it is traditionally ascribed. Otherwise we must depend on external events. The Empire was torn with religious strife about the method in which the physical and divine natures of Christ could be united, divided, or reconciled. The divisive view was eloquently championed by Nestorius, Patriarch of Antioch, who ended his life in consequence, an exile in Egypt, after being damned by an Ecumenical Council in 431. Fifty years later the school at Edessa which was the propaganda center for the heresy was closed by the Emperor Zeno, for Monophysitism (the doctrine of the single divine nature) was more congenial to Eastern minds and took strong hold in Syria and in Egypt, where it originated. A critical situation developed in 451 when the Council of Chalcedon promulgated its orthodox 2

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dual-nature doctrines, and the disturbances which followed in Antioch and Alexandria began to take on the appearance of political as well as religious schism. Of these movements there is only the faintest echo in Nessana, but while in all probability the village, like the rest of Syria, espoused the heresy, we have two slight bits of evidence which seem to point in opposite directions: the name of one of the Egyptian pilgrims is Nestorius, perhaps a reminiscence of the great exile; the word Θεοτόκος applied to Mary in 46.1 and in Inscrs. 52 and 92 would have been impossible in a Nestorian setting (Baynes-Moss 1948.96). Politically the Empire was preoccupied with its serious Western problems and more than content with the peace and prosperity of the Eastern provinces. In fact the balance of power was shifting to Syria and Egypt and the Emperors of the sixth century were increasingly conciliatory as these provinces became aware of their importance. The ground was being laid for the moves to secede from Byzantium which were to make the East amenable to and even receptive of the Islamic incursions which were eventually to come. But in the fifth century secession was still a matter of theory and the Empire must have seemed a solid whole. It was a Greek world, even if Hellenism was a veneer, and the evidence of the inscriptions from the Negeb and the papyri from Nessana shows that Vasiliev 1928 was unduly minimizing it when he wrote (1.111-112): "Much weaker was the Hellenization of Syria, where Hellenic culture reached only the higher educated class. The mass of the population, unacquainted with the Greek language, continued to speak its own native tongues, Syriac or Arabic. One learned orientalist [Noldeke] wrote that 'if even in such a world-city as Antioch the common man still spoke Aramaic,i.e., Syriac, then one may safely suppose that inside the province the Greek language was not the language of the educated class, but only the language of those who made a special study of it.Nessana is far removed from Antioch and its native population certainly knew Arabic and Syriac but the great majority of its papyrus documents are in Greek and the tombstones of its dead, to say nothing of the scribblings of its living on the walls of the church, are almost without exception in Greek. Noldeke's remark could be applied in this village to Latin, as the Vergil papyri show, but even there the people who were making a special study of those textbooks had as their regular tongue not Syriac but Greek. Vasiliev (112) goes on to cite the Syro-Roman Lawbook as additional evidence, for the fact that this notable work, written about 475 in northeastern Syria, "translated into Syriac as early as the second half of the fifth century indicates clearly that the mass of the people were still unacquainted with Greek or Latin and clung strongly to the native Syrian tongue." Now even though the case for the ignorance of Greek is somewhat less cogent than Vasiliev makes it out, his citation of the Lawbook is not without interest here. The earlier of the papyri are pre-Justinian and imply knowledge on the part of clerks of an organized body of law. The Theodosian Code was published in 438, the Syro-Roman Lawbook about 475—it was from these collections rather than the Justinian Code that the clerks derived their knowledge and even later "when Justinian's legislation became officially obligatory upon the whole empire, his code proved to be too bulky and difficult

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*9

of comprehension in the eastern provinces, so that in actual practice, they continued to use the Syriac lawbook as a substitute for the codex." Before leaving the fifth century, it is necessary to deal with the sociological aspect, a difficult problem because of the exasperatingly vague nature of the evidence. I rely here on Alt 1933, Briinnow-Domaszewski 1909, Jones 1937, Hitti 1951, and the Encyclo paedia of Islam, but attempt to view the data from the point of view of Nessana and its immediate vicinity. In Abel's map of Palaestina Tertia (1938, carte x) two points are at once obvious: the importance and direction of the main trade routes (a) from Aila north to Areopolis (and ultimately to Bostra) and (b) from Petra northeast to Beersheba (and Jerusalem) and the predominant military character of the area as indicated by the chains of fortified settlements. Abel's carte ν shows how this area was substantially identical with that of the Nabataean kingdom. The native inhabitants were still the Hellenized Arabs who had long since ceased to be a unified state and who had reverted to their normal tribal organization under sheikhs with varying allegiances and rivalries (like the bani Udayyid in 89.35). The datable Nabataean objects found in Petra range from the third-second century B.C. to the sixth A.D. and the people who made them and who continued to live in the area must still be called, fundamentally, the Nabataeans. But infiltration by other Arab tribes was undoubtedly taking place, although details are lacking. It cannot be determined whether the term Saracen was applied to the new Bedouin arrivals—the term as used by writers of the papyri has a slight pejorative connotation—or generically to all Arabs including the more settled Nabataeans (see the notes to 51.2 and 89.22). The population was also being augmented by the monastic movement, which must in this century have been considerable although here too there are no statistics. Both inscriptions and papyri attest the influence of Syrians and Egyptians, and Mayerson in Nessana 1 is inclined to ascribe to religious settlers most of the intensive agricultural developments which he has studied in the Negeb. The organization of the Theodosian numerus seems to throw a little light on the population. The soldiers who belonged to it have names both Greek and Arabic (in 15 where the unit is mentioned, for instance, two blood brothers are named Stephan and Aws) and all indications point to the fact that the personnel was resident in the area. Of the eleven military units listed by Abel (181—182) as stationed in Palestina Tertia—I omit the legio X Fretensis at Aela—only two carry the names of foreigners: Galatians at Arindela and Phrygians at Praesidium. Illyrians predominate in Palaestina Prima and Secunda (179-180) while in Arabia "la plupart des postes abritaient des troupes indigenes, c'est-a-dire d'origine nabateenne. Les recentes investigations archeologiques montrent que Ies fortresses ou vivaient ces auxiliaires des Romains n'etaient que des constructions nabateennes plus ou moins romaniees." X believe that this statement applies as well to Nessana. c. The Period of the Soldier's Archive Almost exactly at the beginning of the sixth century papyri become the most important source of information for the village. The general nature of the soldiers' archive has been described above but additional details may now be given. I confine myself for the present to the group 14-30, which is so

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homogeneous that it must be taken as a unit. The most striking feature of these docu ments is the fact that they deal with purely family affairs: father and sons (21), husband and wife (18, 20), brothers (15, 19, 24, 30), brothers and sisters (16, 22), and perhaps brothers-in-law (16) are engaged in settling various matters. In only three cases (23, 26, 29) are the principals not related—the remaining four (14, 17, 25, 27) are indeterminate. This can be no accident. Moreover, the fact that there is surprisingly little duplication of persons in this group shows that this is not a single family archive but an accumulation of papers from a number of family groups. The only feature which they have in common is that one or more of the persons involved in each is a soldier. The business transacted is normal in any settled society: men buy and sell (17, 23); they borrow money (26, 27, 28); property, especially land and houses, in various ways changes hands (15, 16, 21,22,24); some people marry (18, 20), and others get into difficulties which only legal action can straighten out (19, 20, 30). Not all of the soldiers, even, live in the village, for in 15 we have two of them "a long time ago natives of Nessana but currently resident in Rhinocorura," many miles away; in 29 another is "at present" living in Elusa 20 miles away and in 30 it is possible that a former member of the troop was in Alexandria. The others, so far as we can tell, made their homes in Nessana but certainly not in the fort. They lived on settlements of their own, to which they had full title, as the various transfers of ownership show. In addition to the fact that the Theodosians were a native militia, we learn from 14-30 some other suggestive, if not conclusive, details. The use of the word στρατιώται throughout is technical —the men are "regulars." Some of their officers are cited: scriniarius (autsim.) and optioprinceps in 19, domesticus in 26, priores in 26 (and35). The bulk of the documents (18-28) comes from the reigns of Justinian and Justin II so that they reflect the provincial organization of Justinian. It is clear that the soldiers had received grants of land which were subject to taxation (23, 24). The grants were alienable, as the numerous transfers of title show. The soldiers almost certainly were cavalry and indeed the appearance of the adjective καβαλλαρικόν in 18.28 seems to bear out the evidence in an inscription (85) which shows a sketch of a soldier on a horse. But both data are inconclusive and I believe the real explanation is something else. Altheim throughout his illuminating description of the Arabs (1952 1.125-156, 174-176) under the falling Roman Empire rightly lays stress upon the military importance of the camel: "denn immer waren, heute wie einst, die Pferde in Arabien eine Seltenheit" (148). Not only the Bedouin warrior was at home on the dromedary but the soldier recruited from the town and countryside; and in an area in which the tribal tradition was persistent and warfare endemic but intermittent, the most natural native formation was of troops subject to sudden call but not held in fixed encampment. They were mobile, prepared to act in small detachments as police in the protection of caravans or civil agencies, in larger groups against Arab raiders and as a well-disciplined whole in actual warfare. Their arms—shields, lances, bows and arrows—they turned in, at the conclusion of each mission, to be kept in storerooms at headquarters, their mounts they presumably had with them at all times. It was such a company of dromedarii that I

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21

conceive the loyal Theodosians to have been, even though in the dated papyri in the soldiers' archive they are not so designated, and if my interpretation is correct, the rooms in the north corner of the fort they used for the storage of their arms and equip ment and the large open area as their mustering place or training ground. So far the evidence has been confined to the papyri which explicitly belong to the military archive, but in view of what is learned there we can extend the list of documents to others which have military references and which I think formed part of the records of the same unit: the undated pieces 35-38, 43, and 106, 129, 133-135, 134, the notes to which give various reasons why they are placed in the sixth century. Of these the most important are 35 and 37 which leave no doubt about the existence of a camel corps which can hardly be anything else than the Theodosian dromedarii. A good deal of data is supplied about the soldiers but it is so scattered that a consistent treatment of the whole is not possible. On the other hand, all of it is new and in view of its importance in an area in which so little is known, I have put together facts which seem to emerge. χ. Officers In 35 we have listed, in order of rank, a primicerius, priores, ducici and cursores in whom we can see the commanding officer, his staff, scouts, and couriers. The primicerius occurs only here but priores are mentioned also in 26 and 36 and are well-known from other sources as well. Maspero 1912.104, equating them with -ττρίορες του όριθμοϋ, ττρώτοι, ττροοτεύοντε? and principales, explains them as the staff (κοινόν) exercising joint responsibility for the enrollment of recruits, for the receipt of annona and, what is important at Nessana, for the settlement of the legal affairs of soldiers and their families. In 35.4-7 ( see note) it seems that there were ten or more men of this rank in the numerus. Ducici are mentioned in 35 and 36, five of them are named and in the note to 35.9 I suggest that they were not in the κοινόν but were under-officers possibly used as scouts. The two κούρσορες are clearly couriers. Other officers do not fit into the picture drawn by Maspero for Egypt: camp secretary (scriniarius or perhaps κεντηνάριος 19.x) and his adjutant the optioprinceps (19, 36.13η) and another adjutant the domesticus (26.ion). Not mentioned in 35 but featured in 37 (cf. 38 and 135) are the squad leaders or decarchs, who may, according to the interpretation given in the intro duction to that papyrus, have numbered 20. A physician may have been attached to the unit (36.15). References to other titles are either doubtful or too slight to be of service (έμβαθμοί 24 .3, σχόλερος 36 .4, βικέριοον 134, ττριμ( ) 129, βοηθός 106) and some may, like ττείοαθαι in 35.8, have no military significance. 2. Size The complement of the numerus or αριθμός was variable, ranging from 200 to 900 men. According to Bury 1923 1.168 the numbers went from 200 to 400 under Justinian, but PCairo Masp 67321 (A.D. 548 or 563) specifically gives the number of the Numidian numerus stationed at Hermopolis at 508. The suggestion in the introduction to 37 that there were at Nessana about 20 squads of 10 men each is based on inference from a portion of a list, but it has at least plausibility in its favor, for the detachment in this village must have been relatively small and this estimate would seem to keep it to the lowest possible limits. All the men were mounted, so that at least 200 camels must have been available. On a visit to Palmyra in 1951 I inquired into the organization of

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a camel corps stationed there under Capt. Shibli Jirmakani and found it still much the same as in the sixth century. The basic unit or squad comprised 12 men (approximately the Theodosian decarchy) and for every 25 men there were said to be 27 camels, while for each 50-52 men 54 camels were provided. The rather loose numerical equivalents were not explained but it was clear that the number of reserve animals was small and that the men and their mounts were nearly equal in number. The list in 35 is probably for periodical replacements. 3. Status The troops (στρατιώται) were Umitanei, the well-known type of borderers, recruited from native residents, who received allotments of public land in return for their acceptance of a hereditary obligation to serve in the imperial army. In this period, under Justinian, the property grant was tax-free and thus the equivalent of salary. Rations were issued (as seen in Cod. Theod. 7.4.4-36) only during active service, but fodder regularly. Troops were, however, like other citizens, subject to the usual imposts, as is shown by the contemporary Beersheba inscriptions (discussed in 39 introd.) which deal with the annona militarise a supplementary tax for members of the bureaucracy and a specific tax for the vicarius. Incidentally, in line 6 of the first of these inscriptions (Alt 1921.5) the troops are referred to generically as oi καθοσιωμένοι λιμιτανέοι, whereas in the papyri they are seen from the military point of view as αριθμός. The papyrus evidence for taxation is meager but seems in conflict with the principle stated above, for in 24 a tax in kind is definitely stated to be attached to land transferred from soldier to soldier, and 34 mentions των ευσεβών τελεσμάτων in con nection with farm property. The hereditary obligation may gradually have broken down, for it is hard to see how it could operate when land was freely alienable as it seems to be in the papyri. Difficulties in the administration of this border system are revealed by a Novel of Theodosius (24 in Pharr 1952.5x1) dated September 12, 443, and dealing with various types of corruption affecting the limitanei and allies (among whom are specifically mentioned the Saracens). The date may be of importance to Nessana for, if the Emperor was so concerned with the welfare of his Eastern troops in 443, it is quite likely that it was at this time that he activated at Nessana the unit named after him. 4. Function As stated above the duties of the numerus were to act as a mobile guard against equally mobile Bedouin; to serve as police in the protection of farms, towns, or caravans; as guards for officials, especially in the collection of taxes; and, when need arose, to fight in actual warfare. None of these functions is named in the documents but in 37 we can see one of the operations. Seven squads, cited by their decarch or squad leader, are drawn upon to supply men for a mission to Caesarea, and for another (lines 5-14) for a similar purpose to another place—or again to Caesarea. If the decarchy consisted of xo men, then in no instance was a unit sent as a whole, for the groups range from two to five men. The group of eight in lines 6-14 is not certain, for lacunae make it possible that more than one squad was concerned, but even here the number is below the quota. Half of the groups were accompanied by their leaders, the other half went alone, and in two cases (lines 33, 40) a marginal note indicates that one man was rerouted

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23

to Egypt. While the scribe calls his work lists of camels and is clearly concerned with mounts rather than with personnel, the record nevertheless deals with individuals each of whom is fully named. No reasons are given for the missions —the scribe is a bookkeeper, not a diarist—but we may view them as either a concerted move to Caesarea by about half the available force, in which case it would seem more efficient to take whole units, or as a series of small police detachments destined for guard duty out of Caesarea. The fact that the two individuals were reassigned and that half the squad leaders remained home is in favor of the latter. Other evidence from a similar type of document but coming from a different unit a century later (92) is discussed below. All attempts to integrate the foregoing with the course of general history have been futile. During the whole of the sixth century, when the near East was astir with great movements in all phases of human activity—political, social, religious, and economic—the data from Nessana deal with local or at most provincial affairs, a reminder that we are dealing with a small settlement in an area off the beaten track. History in the sixth century was being made farther to the north, in Syria and Mesopotamia. There the intermittent struggles were staged between Byzantines and Persians and there, in the middle, were the propaganda efforts to win over, as allies of one or the other, the various Arab tribes. It is quite probable that troops from the Theodosian unit were called up for action in some of these campaigns, as the empire was chronically short of money and the army undermanned, but there is nothing in papyrus or inscription that suggests Arab raids or the means taken to prevent them. If the reference to Caesarea in 37 were to indicate that detachments from the numerus were being sent to an army muster, this would be the only reference to active army service; but 37 is undated and its evidence really too vague to be of use. The great plague of 541 described by Procopius 11 22 seem to have claimed victims in the area, to judge from the burials recorded in October 27—November 4 in Inscrs. 80, 1x2, 113, 114, but there is no hint of the earthquakes of 551 in either papyri or inscriptions. Of the local economic and political situation also we learn little from the military archive: that there were taxes (δημόσια); that there was a record office in Elusa in 569 (24) but also an office probably serving much the same purpose in Nessana in 596 (30); that there was a quota system in tax assessments levied on landowning soldiers and civilians (39); that local clerks were careful to follow an imperial regulation dealing with the dating of official documents (see notes to 18.x and 20.1). There is no hint of the heavy and inequable taxation or the great official corruption which Diehl 1913.42 cites as characteristic of Justinian's administrative system, nor, on the other hand, of the "solid economic prosperity" which the same author describes (40) for Syria and the Eastern provinces and which indeed is suggested by the relatively large number of sixth century coins (especially from the mint at Constantinople) found in the village and also by the fact that, according to Harden's statements in Nessana 1, glass fragments point to the sixth century as the busiest in the history of the village. So far as our evidence goes, Nessana seems to have reached a high point in its history in the last decade of the sixth century and the first of the seventh. Three develop-

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ments, all probably interrelated, must have had important repercussions. First, the camel corps of the loyal Theodosians was disbanded. Exactly when and how this happened we cannot tell, but by reading between the lines we may arrive at an approximation. Before 543 the demands of the imperial treasury had become so exigent that Justinian's finance minister, John of Cappadocia, actually suggested that settlers' lands be reclaimed, i.e. that military grants be revoked. Although the proposal was not carried out, there can be no doubt that in the last unhappy years of his reign, from the death of Theodora in 548 to his own in 565, Justinian neglected the needs of the regular army (reduced, according to Diehl 1913.51 from an effective strength of 645,000 to a dangerously low level of 150,000 men) and particularly of the borderers. "Corps of limitanei were disbanded, the fighting force of the troops of the line in Syria was dismissed, strong positions were left undefended, often bereft of garrisons altogether, and Justinian's excellent network of fortresses no longer sufficed to keep out the barbarians" (Diehl 1913.36). But the Theodosians survived this retrenchment, although two very minor details seem to be straws in the wind of demoralization: in 562 Elias' oldest son does not follow his father in the hereditary service of soldier (21) and in 566 the army clerk does not bother to head an official paper in the customary style (23). The end seems to have come about 590 (see 29 introd. and 30 introd.), a time of readjustment, for the long and costly war with the Persians was drawing to one of its periodical "closes" and the Emperor was withdrawing all available troops for the defense of the Danube. The fact that in 598 a man is still accorded the descriptive military title καθωσκομένος (44.i) may mean that demobilization occurred a few years later or that the title was repeated from force of habit. In any case it is safe to say that by 600 there were no longer imperial troops in Camp Nessana. d. Population Changes in the Sixth Century The second significant development was the radical change in the nature of the population, for by 600 the Nabataeans had been supplanted by, or integrated with, other Arab peoples. Again we are not told how or when this took place and must rely on external history to furnish the setting for the few hints afforded by Nessana. The great movement from the desert which was to culminate in Islam was long in coming —its roots go back as far as the second century, and the breaking of the dam at Marib, which plays such a prominent part in Arab tradition, was only one incident in the series of economic setbacks which induced South Arabian tribes to move to the north. Incidentally, the mid-fifth century date for the breaking of the dam is contemporary with the establishment of the Theodosians and there may be a remote connection between the events. The Ghassanids, who ascribed their origin to Yemen and their exodus to the failure of the dam, were established by 500 as a power in North Syria and disturbances caused by their entrance during the previous half century must have been felt by the imperial officials on the border as a formidable menace. There must have been many unrecorded incidents like that of 452 when Asper the magister militum of Syria entrusted to his son Ardabu the duty of beating back Bedouin raiders threatening Damascus, and other forced compromises like that with the swashbuckling Imru'l Oais, who drove the Roman tax officials from the Red Sea

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25

port of Jotaba, raided Syria, and had the effrontery to demand from the Byzantine Emperor the chieftainship of the tribes in Palaestina Tertia. About thirty years later (in 498) the duke of Palestine was able to dislodge this intruder but the pressure was constant and kept the Empire and its allied tribes on the defensive throughout the sixth century. Justinian's Eastern policy was oriented toward the Persians, and his political concessions to the Ghassanid sheikhs, including the grant of the title phylarch and the honor of the rank of patricius, were indications of weakness. The balance of power was shifting to the Arabs, and it is significant that to al Harith ibn Jabalah the title phylarch was interpreted to mean malik or king and to place him on a par with his contemporary Justinian. The nature of the Arab influx is portrayed by Altheim 1952 (1.125—156 esp. 125—127). Individuals and family groups moved not always because of the economic pressures of the desert but because of the attraction of business life in the more highly organized centers in the north. Thus Hashim ben cAbd Manaf, the great grandfather of Mohammed, seems to have established himself as a merchant in Gaza (like the Egyptians of 90) and to have died there, presumably making family connections, for the Prophet's father Abdullah died on a return trip to Medina from Gaza. Because of the constant shifts of family groups like this, and the unsatisfactory nature of the pre-Islamic sources relating to them, it is impossible to gain any clear conception of the Arab people of this period and scattered epigraphical or other documentary data have particular importance. Thus the tombstone of Imru'l Qais ibn "Amr, who died December 7, 328 (Dussaud 1927. 378), has the historical value of revealing that this friend of the Romans not merely designated his son to give them cavalry support but also brought about the defeat of Arab tribes pressing in from the desert toward Damascus and named by him as Asad, Nizar, Madhhij, and Shammar. Thus the situation in the Negeb must have resembled that of the rest of the Arab world in the return to the tribal system. In the place of the Nabataeans there were groups of new families into which the Nabataeans were merged. These were the Judham, a loose confederation of nomadic tribes who in the seventh century controlled the deserts between the Hedjaz, Syria, and Egypt. Scattered throughout the wadi 'I-Kura and around Tabuk and Aila "they were," according to Lammens in Encyc. Islam s.v. "Djudham," "to be met with on horseback on the Egyptian frontier; their territory was undulating, of deserts, steppes, pastures, oases few and far between and including 'Amman, Macan, Adhruh., Madyan and Ghazza. They made their living on the traderoutes joining Arabia, Syria and Egypt, as guides and caravan leaders and levied customs and tolls for their services. .. They have been represented as descendants of the Midianites, but why not of the Nabataeans as they occupied exactly the same territory as the latter ?. . , In the early years of the Hidjra, we find them at the head of the MustaWiba or Christianized Arabs, allies of the Byzantines; their Christianity however, was very superficial, like that of the nomad tribes. . . In the meanwhile [i.e. during the struggle between cAli and Mu'awiya], crossing the frontiers of their ancient desert country, they had entered Djund Filastln, where they henceforth formed the bulk of the Arab population."

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It may be well to conclude the story of the Nabataeans with the observation of Honigman (Encyc. Islam s.v. "Nabataeans") that "the inhabitants of the district of Iiisma in the most northern part of the Hidjaz, once the Djudham j now the Huwaitat, are regarded as the descendants of the Nabataeans," and the more lyrical passage by Hitti 1951.388: "Conductors of caravans which functioned as arteries in the trade of the Ancient East, architects of a city unique in the history of man's handiwork, builders of dams and cisterns where no water today exists, the Nabataeans are represented now by the lowly Huwaytat Bedouins, who still rove where their ancestors once flourished and pitch their tents outside of their 'rose-red city half as old as time.'" A witness to, and a party in, all of this development, Nessana has very little to tell us about it. Several of the papyri refer to Saracens and in the note to 51.2 I suggest that the word is simply the equivalent of "Bedouin," i.e. that it reflects the antagonistic attitude of the settled Arab toward the nomad seeking a livelihood in ways not always orthodox (n.b. the connotation of συκοφαυτήσαντι in 89.22). They were the "outs" as seen by the "ins." Two tribal or family names appear: in 28.2 a man is described as έκ των υιών Ζαμί,αμα (perhaps the same as Αβιθαμθαμ in 92.30) and in 89.35 a group of "Saracens" who took a camel are called ύοΐ Ειαλωδεεις. e. Building and Business in the Sixth Century The third noteworthy activity at Nessana in the sixth century was in the building of churches, and this was considerable. The "north church complex" was extended by the addition of a chapel (Room 5) to the north of the Church of SS. Stephan and Sergius. Since the papyri never mention this church but refer only to the Church of the Martyr SS. Sergius and Bacchus it seems that a change of name took place in the reign of Justinian. The popularity of the latter saints was widespread: among others a church in their name and in that of St. Leontius went up in Bostrain 512 (Brunnow-Domaszewski 1909 111.350) and Justinian completed his in 537. There is some reason for believing that the Nessana church followed shortly after Justinian's at Constantinople, for a burial was found in it dated 541 (Inscr. 80, but note the uncertainty about exact provenience). The change of name can easily be explained: Sergius was the dominant soldier-saint —only fifteen years after his martyrdom a church (Butler 1929.253) had been erected to him in Syria—and just as he and Bacchus eclipsed Stephan (and Leontius, judging from Bostra) here, so he later eclipsed Bacchus in the papyrus references (e.g. 80.1). The relationship of church building and economics has been well stated by Rostovtzeff 1932.69-70. While the statement was made in connection withjerash, it has its pertinence in the Negeb: "The real revival of Jerash took place in the time of Justinian, and the reason for this will be elucidated at some future date by those who are prepared to devote serious study to the history of caravan trade of late Roman and Byzantine times. One thing, however, is certain, and that is that in Justinian's day there was a revival of caravan trade. It again followed the Transjordanian route, passing through Petra or through the towns which had superseded her in Arabia, and it had a marked effect on the life of Jerash. It was at that date that there appeared there, beside the ruins of the temple of Artemis, a huge church, the cathedral of Theodore Stratelates, with a holy tank and mighty Propylaea rivalling

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the similar heathen building standing near by. These, too, were everywhere turned into churches, and painting and mosaic-work blossomed in them." The church building program came to a climax somewhat later at Nessana than at Jerash, but there is evidence that the caravan trade was as flourishing as Rostovtzeff claims. The homely account 89 for all its tantalizingly laconic or allusive entries is nevertheless valuable for the vivid glimpse it affords of the operations of a small caravan. The members of the company, while chiefly interested in camels and donkeys, were ready to turn a hand to any enterprise that looked remunerative and they give the impression not so much of carriers of merchandise as of free agents, trading as they traveled. From a different point of view 90 and 91 show some of the details of a specialized business—the marketing of dates (apparently home-grown) to a series of carriers who travel alone or in caravan. Here too the insight afforded by the two accounts is vivid and the three papyri together will be welcome sources for that history of caravan trade which Rostovtzeff desiderated. More than that, we have in 31 by a stroke of luck a brief but illuminating description of one of the houses which served as hotel for the caravans. It was known as the "house of Abu Joseph son of Doubabos/' clearly a sort of trade name, for the regular procedure in all descriptions of houses was to mention them as property of the heir and present owner. Another house in the same papyrus is called (line 40) "House of Abu 'I-Mughira" and probably had the same reason for being known to travelers. The Abu Joseph House was described as having 96 beds, an upper story, and a vacant space in front. The number of beds seems large, even for a khan or caravanserai such as this. They were, however, not bedsteads but mats which could be rolled up when not in use. The upper story contained the bedrooms. It may have been simply the roof of the house furnished with a parapet and outside stairway or, more elaborately, a real roofed second story arranged as a balcony on several sides of the main courtyard and broken up into many separate rooms or cubicles. The former type can be exemplified by the photograph of a modern Syrian house in Miller 1944, fig. 139. It will be noted that two reed mats are there shown rolled up and placed upright against the wall, while in the preceding fig. 138 eight woolen blankets are folded and piled on the wide adobe bench. The beds (κοΐτοα) of 31.34 are the mats or blankets, not the bench. So also in Mitteis-Wilcken 1912. 244.5. The khan with real second story and balcony bedrooms can still be seen in use in the bazaars at Damascus, where the ground floor is piled high with merchandise of all sorts. The vacant space in front of the building is also an integral part of the establish ment. This is the loading lot and cattle-yard. Here it was that the camels and donkeys, with all the noise and confusion, came at the end of a day's trip, to be relieved of their loads, fed, watered, and tethered for the night; and here undoubtedly the merchandise in transit also remained, while objects for longer storage (like that, perhaps, referred to in 48) went into the house. Such a lot can be seen in operation as a cattle-yard in a photograph taken at Amman by Miller 1944.92; a fine example, on a huge scale, enclosed in a wall of bedrooms, is extant at Restan on the Orontes, and less pretentious ones are everywhere in the Arab world. Ancient examples are equally numerous—see for example

28

INTRODUCTION

Rostovtzeff 1932 for a photograph (128) of a caravanserai at Palmyra, and for a verbal picture (77) of the scene at Jerash. Musil's plan indicates a building which he identifies as a khan. His ground plan shows sixteen rooms plus a large courtyard and a well. It is not possible that this is to be identified with the "House of Father Joseph," since it is situated at the extreme edge of town and not directly below the fort, which is the location given in the papyrus. It is thus of considerable interest to discover at Nessana the evidence not only for caravan trade in general but also for one of the centers of its activities. It may be that the two houses were originally built not by local inhabitants but by influential synodiarchs, organizers and guarantors of caravans, who among their other interests owned rest houses and storage places in various towns on the routes. It would be natural that these "hotels" would then continue to be known by their founders' names even after actual ownership had passed into other hands. The caravan industry had religious as well as economic significance, for the sixth century was remarkably addicted to pilgrimage. The "holy places" (memoriae) to which the pious turned were multitudinous: objects or places associated with Jesus, like the Mount of Olives, with the Virgin, like the Room of the Annunciation, with Old Testa ment history, like Jacob's Well at Sichem, or with martyrs whose bones, separated and dispersed as relics, were venerated everywhere. Naturally the goal was Jerusalem but various local "places" attained particular eminence. Such was the site of the Burning Bush of Moses on Mt. Sinai, around which Justinian built a monastery and which was visited later, as 72 and 73 show, by Moslems as well as Christians. The caravan account 89 indicates a combination of business and piety, for the travelers (lines 22-25) went to το άγιου όρος, bought food, attended services, and made offerings both for themselves and others there. As suggested in the introduction to 89 the pilgrim Antoninus, who about 570 made the trip to Sinai, may well have been a contemporary of the traders and his impressions of the trip are pungent (see the passage cited in the introduction to 89). Another pertinent bit comes from Jerome's life of Hilarion in the passage (30) in which he cites the deacon who kept dromedaries for hire to pilgrims on their way to Egypt "because of the scarcity of water in the desert." Itisinthis setting that the inscription on the walls of the martyrium of Sergius and Stephan (see above p. 15) can best be understood. /. The Early Seventh Century We may now proceed to the seventh century, which started with a burst of building activity. On September 7, 601, a mosaic floor was laid which included a commemorative inscription (94) to the benefactors Sergius a monk, Pallous his sister, and John his nephew, a deacon. This, as Welles analyzes the situation in Nessana 1, was a prominent family from Homs (Emesa); Sergius had been a jurist and had left his property (and his fiscal responsibilities) to his nephew before taking orders. The building to which the mosaic belonged was a church or monastery, of which Sergius and his family probably donated the floor. In the same year, according to Inscr. 92, a donation was recorded (on a capital of the nave) to the Church of St. Mary Mother of God which the excavation architect dated not earlier than the second half of the sixth

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century and which evidently was going up in 601. The older Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus was not without its benefactors, for Inscr. 17 records, again on a column dated 601/602, a gift which Welles says may indicate the addition of the baptistery to the Church. Four years later, on September 18, 605, the completion of a building is commemorated on a stone whose original location, however, is not known (Inscr. 72). This may refer to a fourth new building or merely to the completion of one of the other three; but even if it is the latter, we have evidence to show that in the first years of the seventh century the church was very active. The reasons for this we can only guess at, but in the uncertainties which resulted from steady Byzantine withdrawal, in the face of increasing aggressiveness on the part of the Persians, and tribal truculence and "nationalism" on the part of the Arabs, it would not be surprising to find many persons like the Syrian jurist Sergius turning from the turbulence of politics to the security of the desert and the church. Indeed it is not unlikely that another Sergius, a soldier who fifty years before (in 562 according to 21) divided all of his property among his four sons, may have been similarly inclined to give up his worldly goods and turn to a monastery. The small archive which comes from the early years of the century is discussed above in § ib and no more need be said here except that the papyri make it likely that the building activity just mentioned was in some way connected with the career of Patrick son of Sergius, the abbot of the Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus. They mention this church frequently but really tell us very little about it, not even whether it was a church or a monastery. It seems certain that the village contained a monastery. We know that some time after the erection of the fort a whole series of new rooms was built in it. There is no date, but I think it at least worth consideration that this alteration may have come about after the fort was abandoned (i.e. about 600), and that the fort was thus redesigned as a monastery. This might serve as answer to a puzzling problem why loom-weights were found in the rooms of a fort. If there were monks living here rather than soldiers, weaving could seem a more normal occupation. In that case the building described by Musil may have been the ξενοδοχείου or hostel mentioned by the traveler Antoninus about 570, that is, if the text of that writer has been correctly emended by its editor Geyer 1898.182: ftProficiscentes de civitate Elusa, ingressi heremum. Ad xx milia est castrum, in quo est xenodochius sancti Georgi, in quo habent quasi refugium transeuntes vel heremitae stipendia." The reading of Elusa seems certain and the camp located twenty miles away would reasonably be Nessana, as Abel 1935.39, n. 3 recognized, although willing to accept as a second choice Esbeita, which contained a church of St. George. But Esbeita was not a castrum like Nessana, and I am more inclined to follow Abel's first choice and to locate the hostel of St. George in our village, even though there is no evidence for such a building either in the inscriptions or the papyri. But the history of the seventh century, as revealed by our data, is very uneven. The dated inscriptions come to an end in 630, the papyri fall into two groups, one dated c. 602-608, the other 674-690 and for more than half a century we have no documents

3°

I N T R O D U C T I O N

to which even an approximate date can be assigned. The gap is significant, for in this period came the overthrow of the Byzantine empire in the East by the Persians and, in swift reaction, the political emergence of Islam. It would be unnatural for the villagers to have recorded the overrunning of Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine by Persian troops in 607 or the steady series of disasters which overtook the imperial armies during the next six years and which led in 614 to the fall of Jerusalem, but one seems to expect some indication that in 619 Persians on their triumphant way to Egypt passed within plundering distance of the Negeb. There are few distinctively Persian names to be found and these quite out of historical context. There are no tax officials or tax assessments. If people without a history are happy, Nessanites were too agreeably busy with their own affairs to worry about the Byzantine recapture of Egypt or, more important, about the great Arab uprising which followed the death of Mohammed in 632, about the fighting in Southern Palestine in 633 (in which surely some of the villagers must have taken part, probably on the side of the Byzantines) or about the systematic occupation of Palestine, including Gaza, in 634 by the southern Arabs. If Nessana "fell" to the new rulers, or was "occupied," this event was most likely to have occurred in 633, years before the decisive defeat of Heraclius at the Yarmuk, August 20, 636. When the curtain fell with the capitulation of Caesarea in 640, the only contemporary record in the Negeb is that of the relaying of the floor of the South Church in Esbeita, a floor which, the excavators noted, showed signs of considerable use. g. The Post-Conquest Period There is the same lack of any datable evidence for the years immediately following the Moslem conquest. The archaeological data is especially meager. Ten bronze coins, none dated, are ascribed by Miles in Nessana 1 to the end of the Ummayad period 696-750. The small collection of pottery fragments of this same period are placed by Day in Nessana 1 within a slightly broader span: most of it Ummayad (661-750) but two fragments first half of ninth century i.e. early Abbasid. Harden lumps the glass in general groups, the latest dating from the ninth century onward, but points out that it could all very well fall in the earliest part of the period. There is no indication at all of architectural activity, but at nearby Sbeitah an inscription locates a mosque in the Ummayad period. By contrast the papyrological data are full and concrete. Crowded into the last quarter of the seventh century and ceasing abruptly before A.D. 700, it is varied in character and thus becomes the basis for historical reconstruction. The post-Conquest "archive" contains about forty pieces (56-95) dealing with taxation and compulsory public services, military affairs, private business, farming and personal matters. In them we sense immediately the change which came about as a result of the new regime instituted by the Moslems and in particular by Mu'awiyah and his successors. The last period of Nessana may fairly be described as Ummayad, and the difference between it and that reflected in the soldiers' archive is striking. The focal point now is definitely outside the village, which seems to dwindle to its natural size as a mere settlement integrated in the large fabric of the Moslem administration. The emphasis is on taxation and compulsory services—expressed in the curt businesslike style which is in sharp contrast to the elaborate formality of the Byzantines —and there

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31

is no doubt that the prime consideration of the new rulers was the systematic raising of revenues for the support of the dynasty and its troops. The difference in social tone is also noteworthy. Names are being changed to fit into the new pattern as people realize that the Byzantines are gone and with them the fashion of Hellenizing the Arabic forms. Now the fashion is reversed and Arabic names appear with increasing frequency. Tribes too and families within tribes (especially in 92 and 93) are cited and give a vivid picture of the reversion to the tribal organization which was and is natural to the Arabs. Presumably the transition was easy and even the dislocation caused by the immigration of thousands of new settlers must have seemed natural to folk psychologically semi-nomadic. If my interpretation of the term "Saracens" as the equivalent of "Bedouins" (89 introd.) with at first derogatory con notation is sound, then there only do we perceive any conflict between the older inhabitants and the incoming settlers. There is no sign of religious difference, for many of the southerners were also Christians, and the church at Nessana remained to the end. Nabataeans there undoubtedly still were in Sinai, as their inscriptions attest, but they had been amalgamated, as already indicated, into the federation of the Judham (who appear in 93.49 as Γουδαμ). The invaluable evidence afforded by 76 shows that the total population of the village about 689 could not have exceeded 1500 and that the number was most likely smaller. This inference, based on a poll-tax register, is happily reinforced by two independent calculations by Mayerson (1955.53-65), who on the basis of the requisitions for wheat and oil (61-63) estimates a minimum population of 900-1000. It would seem safe to state that at the end of the seventh centmy about one thousand persons lived in Nessana and that the number of their houses was between one and two hundred (76 introd.). The little settlement seems to have been ignored in the early days of the Conquest and in the more exciting and fruitful years that followed. That seems to be the reason for the lacuna in the papyrological evidence. From 605, when 46 was written, until 674, when the first of the tax requisitions (60) appeared, there are no dated papyri, and while these outer limits might be narrowed if some of the fragmentary pieces from the seventh century were more completely preserved, it seems probable in view of the concentration of documents at the beginning and end of the century that the intervening 70 years were sparsely represented. Certainly the inhabitants of the village, who must have been on the Byzantine side if they took any part at all in the Conquest, could have had no share in the abundant spoils and were probably gratified at merely being ignored. It may be well to quote in full a description of these early days, keeping in mind the probable effect on conditions in Nessana (Sprangling 1939.177—178). "Naturally the Arabs, when they broke over the boundaries of Syria, Persia, and Egypt in the second quarter of the seventh century A.D., presently had to deal with numbers of men and sums of money and other values which went beyond the most sanguine expectations and the wildest dreams that may be ascribed to Mohammed and the early Moslems. Some city Arabs of that time were neither so ignorant nor so illiterate

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I N T R O D U C T I O N

as has sometimes been assumed, and there were among them comparatively rich mer chants who knew how to handle trade, merchandising, and financial transactions on a fairly large scale. "Nevertheless, Mohammed, Abu Bekr, and cUmar in his first years seem not to have kept any books for what might be considered state income and expense. Since the Moslem world from very lowly and little beginnings was only just emerging into something like state form and the power of these rulers was divinely autocratic and affairs were, after all, in these earliest times primitively patriarchal, this is quite intelligible. No one gave it a thought, and, though some state and church transactions did have a distinctly commercial flavor, other aims and considerations and generally known dominant personalities outweighed all that. When the conquests outside the borders of Arabia began, the mass of the soldiery was beduin, desert nomad, accustomed to a hard, hand-to-mouth existence and not addicted to written reckoning and accounting. "As affairs expanded and became more complicated, as dealings with more largely settled lands and their peoples became more numerous and took on an aspect of greater permanence, shrewd heads among the city Arabs presently saw the lack and need of these things. The year 20 A.H. = A.D. 640 is plausibly named as the year in which the first change was introduced, (Biladhurl, Futuh 450). Characteristic is the story {ibid. 453) how Abu Hurairah came from Bahrain and announced to cUmar, as he met him after the evening prayer, that he had brought with him 500,000 (dirham). cUmar said: 'Do you know what you are talking about?' He replied: Ί have brought 500,000.' c Umar says: 'Just what are you saying?' He says: 'ιοο,οοο, plus 100,000,' counting up to five. cUmar says: 'Look here, you're dopey. Go home and sleep it off and come to me in the morning!' The morning produces no change, no awakening from a dream. So cUmar proceeds to dish out the booty, not knowing rightly whether to do it by count or by measure. Someone suggests: These Persians establish a register by which they regulate their gifts." Dennett 1950 has discussed (61-62) the census instituted by cUmar in 640 and the subsequent efforts made to register lands, men, animals, palm trees, etc., in order to secure reasonable bases for taxation and has made abundantly clear that the systems instituted by the Moslems were based upon those of their Byzantine predecessors but with greatly increased centralization. It would be instructive to learn how early and in what manner these were applied to a small community like Nessana but the lacuna withholds the information from us. When the evidence once more appears, in 674, we find a full-fledged system in operation, but whether this was the work of Mu'awiyah (661-680), as I am inclined to believe, or· goes back to the pre-Ummayyad caliphs there is no way of telling. It certainly preceded the great fiscal reforms of cAbd-al-Malik, around 691. At any rate, after 674 the papyri afford documentary illustration of most of the features of the new system. That the organization centered about the capital at Damascus is shown by 92 and 93; that the provincial capital was Gaza is evidenced indirectly by a number of references, e.g. 55, 59, 75, and the entagia 60-67. Some of the governors of

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33

the province of Filastin are mentioned by name and fill out gaps in our knowledge of the Arab bureaucracy. Al-Harith ibn c Abd was in office between October 674 and February 677 (60-66), Hassan ibn Malik around 689 (67), Abu Rashid apparently in 683 and 684 (72, 73) and Muslim between 682 and 689 (58). Closer limits will be assigned from data not available to me but, on the bases of these papyri, there would seem to be a sequence al-Harith 674/677, Abu Rashid after 683, Muslim before 689, Hassan c. 690. Another governor whose name is indecipherable, cannot be dated (Se. . . [ in 158). Elusa appears in the entagia as a division of Gaza but the title of its administrative head is not given. The top man at Nessana was the dioecetes or manager (68, 70, 74). Details of the taxation system are discussed in the introduction and notes to the papyri, but it may be useful to give here a brief capitulation. Every financially competent man, excepting of course the Moslem, was subject to five taxes, which Bell in PLond iv. xxv classifies, according to the practice in Egypt, as follows: a. ordinary (δημόσια) 1) in money (χρυσικά δημόσια) a) poll (ανδρισμός, διότ/ραφον, διαγραφή) b) land (δημόσιον) c) upkeep of officials (δαττάνη) 2) in grain (εμβολή) b. extraordinary (έξτραόρδινα) The poll tax (always called έττικεφάλιον) is mentioned several times in these papyri and the amount is stated in 59 to be 6 solidi. This, as is stated in the introduction to 59, is higher than the maximum rate of 4 cited by Arab tradition and the mean rate of 2 established for Egypt but falls well within the limits (2 to 9) which occur in the papyri from that country. The amount obviously was not uniform. The land tax appears in three documents: in 55 it is 41^ solidi (clearly for a whole year), in 59 it is 6. No information is afforded concerning the amount of land on which the tax was levied, and the very large sum (371/2 solidi) paid in 58, if it was indeed the annual tax suggests that the tax varied according to acreage. The normal rate in Egypt was apparently 1 solidus on 4 arouras of irrigated land (PLond 1419 introd.). Installments and arrears are both mentioned in 77 but since the amounts are clearly differentiated it is impossible to use the figures in this connection beyond stating that they range from I1Z2 to 23 solidi. According to Hitti 1946.171 the distinction between poll tax (jizyah) and land tax (kharaj) had not yet been drawn by the Arabs at the time of the second caliph (634—644) but it must have been established well before the date of 59 (c. 684). The rest of the taxes (δοπτάνη, έμβολή, and έξτραόρδινα) are not cited as such in these papyri but they were undoubtedly levied, perhaps under other names like the abbreviated ετταγ in 77 (compare also the vague references in 71 and 81). Thus the food allowance for the troops appears in its familiar Arabic form rizlj (ρου£ικόν 69) in the entagia 60-67, as does the soldiers' money allowance (ρόγα in 92). Other features of the taxation system are discussed in the notes and introductions to the various papyri: e.g. registration and census lists (76), land transfer (58, 59),

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assessment (76-78), collection (58, 59, 70), compulsory services (72-74), tax adjustment by complaint (75). They are worth detailed treatment by Arabic specialists, for they reflect the Umayyad interest in organization by showing how the government extended its hand over the affairs of a small village. The same must be said about the military activities reported in 92 and 93. While these difficult documents leave many problems for future solution, they still offer us information of much value. In or around the year 685 a military unit was in operation executing orders sent from headquarters in Damascus, Egypt (presumably Fustat), and elsewhere. The nature of the assignments varies within only narrow limits and, consisting mainly of the furnishing of guards for transport of food and money, suggests a police corps attached to the quartermaster's department. The men were registered, significantly, in the Arab manner, by tribes and since their orders came directly from high authority—many from the headquarters of the Caliph himself—they were part of the regular army. Whether they were stationed at Nessana, and therefore successors to the old Byzantine camel corps of the loyal Theodosians, cannot be determined. The registers are so unlike anything else found in these papyri that they may not even belong to the collection at all but, as suggested in the introduction to 92, may have come there by accident. There is no archaeological evidence for the persistence of the fort at Nessana in post-Conquest times but on the other hand no reason why the village with its convenient buildings and adequate water supply should not have been selected by the Ummayad command as the site of a police post. The unit was certainly small and most probably, like the Theodosians, mounted on camels. Until more evidence is available further conjecture seems pointless, but one additional suggestion may be made here. The designation of specific men from named tribes as the agents of the central administration is a procedure which was also followed in the entagia 60-67 where tribesmen were despatched to pick up the requisitions of wheat and oil levied upon the local inhabitants. The operations revealed by the two groups of papyri were then separate phases of the same administrative function—supplying the Arab troops with food and pay. The remaining papyri from the post-Conquest period deal with the affairs of the native population and the church. They can be briefly reviewed. Farming went on as usual (82-84) and the remarkable account of the grain yield which is discussed in the introduction to 82 and in the analysis of Mayerson 1955.60-61 is proof of the fact that it was conducted in at least one area with surprising success. Business too is described, particularly in the important record of date sales (90, 91) and the account of the merchants' caravan (89, which may however be pre-Conquest), but also in the miscellaneous small accounts like 85, 87, 88, and 95 which deal chiefly with foodstuffs. Finally, the release from a labor contract 56 and the divorce agreement 57 show that the social and economic affairs of the village were proceeding as usual. That the church continued to function to the end is clear from 80, an account of offerings of wheat to St. Sergius. This is slim evidence, but a number of other accounts may probably, without mentioning the church, refer to its business affairs. No other

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35

church in the village is mentioned but if St. Sergius held on it is likely that the others did also. Certainly there is no evidence here that the Moslems in any way interfered in religious matters. However, from the paucity of material dealing with the church which was found in its own storage room, one gets the feeling that there was some sort of decline and that more secular material was being deposited in the religious building. And this is what we would expect, for the whole village, as an organized community at least, probably came to an end not long after the end of the eighth century. There was no catastrophe but rather a withdrawal of the population in the face of changed conditions the nature of which can only be inferred from outside sources. Of the date we can be reasonably sure. It has already been shown above that, except for two fragments of pottery and some glass, no archaeological data can reasonably be placed later than 750 and all papyrological evidence ends abruptly before 700. It must therefore be concluded that Nessana was abandoned, except for nomads and stray travelers, by the middle of the eighth century. Why was it abandoned ? The question is difficult for it involves the equally difficult one—why did it ever acquire the degree of prosperity that it enjoyed in the sixth and seventh centuries? It was as a border land that the area of Nessana and its neighboring towns throve. As a buffer between Byzantines and the Bedouin it could call upon subsidies from the West; when the Byzantines left, the tribes from the desert moved in, and brought with them some of the fruits of the recent conquests of the Arabs. Under the Umayyads the area maintained itself by sharing in the general prosperity of the time. The Arab capital at Damascus looked to the West, its interest was centered in the rich provinces which had been wrested from the Byzantines and the southern towns too were part of Syria. But in a few years the character of the Moslem empire changed. Hitti 1946.288-428 paints a picture of the social revolution brought in by the Abbasid dynasty in 750. The newly built capital at Baghdad was a symbol of the dynasty which turned its back upon the West and looked to Persia for guidance in administration and art. Even Islam was affected by the new influence and Syria became one of the less important provinces of the Empire. Under such circumstances, the Arab tribes of the Negeb must have moved to more promising fields or, if they remained, must have sunk once more to the level of Bedouin. It was by this social upheaval that I conceive the inhabitants of Nessana finally to have been submerged. §5.DATING SY STEMS The systems of dating employed in the Negeb are varied. Egyptian, Seleucid, Roman, and Arab influences are seen at work in this border area and because the use either of era or calendar, in different combinations, is of assistance in building a background for the papyri, as well as in supplying welcome dates, I have described all more extensively than would otherwise be necessary.

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36

Eras. Six eras (years reckoned from a distinct starting point, or epoch) and four calendars (lunar or solar months in fixed rotation) are found, in the papyri and inscriptions, associated variously with each other. The eras are the following: Gaza (or Pompey) Bostra (or Arabia Provincia) Roman regnal dates Roman consular dates Roman indictions Arab (Hejira)

beginning October 28, 61 B.C. March 22, A.D. 106 various January 1 September 1 (in cycles of fifteen starting 297) July 16, A.D. 622

Gaza era. The era used locally at Gaza (and probably throughout Palestina Prima), which is referred to in 45, was identified by Kirk 1937.213-217. The clue to the identification was a stylistic quirk of the Seleucids: inversion of numerals, e.g. γξχ instead of χξγ for 663. This practice, which is quite uncommon in Egypt and elsewhere, appeal's frequently on Seleucid coins and in inscriptions from Syria and is characteristic of the coinage of Syrian mints of the fourth century. Kirk's analysis of the usage on inscriptions from the Negeb (table, p. 214) made it clear that the inversion, and consequently the era, was the rule at Gaza, and that the era was the one starting October 28, 61 B.C. While known locally as the Gaza era (κατά Γαίέων) the system came into being with the reorganization of Palestine and Syria by Pompey the Great (Briinnow-Domaszewski 1909 111.307)· The Egyptian calendar is so familiar from papyri that description is superfluous here. It is converted as follows: Thoth Phaophi Hathyr Choiak Tybi Mecheir

August 29 (or 30 following a leap year) September 28 (29) October 28 (29) November 27 (28) December 27 (28) January 26 (27)

Phamenoth Pharmouthi Pachon Payni Epiph Mesore 5 (6) intercalaries

February 25 (26) March 27 April 25 May 26 June 25 July 26 August 24

Its use in the Negeb is not common, occurring only in a handful of the papyri, 15, 90, 119, 178, and in three tombstones and a graffito from the Negeb, one (Inscr. 3oj) from Nessana, one from Gaza (Revue biblique 3 [1894] 249; reading amended slightly in Alt 1924.98, no. 8), and two from Rhinocorura (Revue biblique 36 (1927) 94, nos. 2 and 3). Egyptian dating is natural enough at Rhinocorura (where 15 was written), for this town, the frontier station on the road to Palestine, was in the Egyptian province of Augustamnica. 119 would be placed then, like 15, outside Palestina Tertia. This system of dating is equally natural in 90 which deals throughout with Egyptian traders, and in 30 (j) where the names suggest Egyptian origin. The fragmentary account 178 is no doubt to be explained in the same way. The use in the inscription from Gaza may be

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37

attributed to the fact that the father of the defunct was presumably an Egyptian. Here3 a note of the editor (Germer-Durand) calls attention to the fact that "le nom du p£re doit etre egyptien"; Alt 1924.98 corrects the name. On Egyptian influence in the Christianity of the Gaza region, cf. Alt 1932.100.

§6. W I D T H O F T H E P A P Y R U S R O L L The great majority of the Colt papyri are either too small or too fragmentary to give any clear indication of the size of the sheet on which they were written. However, close examination of the larger pieces did yield some data. The documents were regarded from the point of view primarily of the writing, therefore "height" (or length) means the vertical distance (almost always at right angles to the fibers) from top to bottom of the written piece, "width" the horizontal distance. In the statement of size at the head of each papyrus in the text the order is height-width. Measurement by width divides the pieces into four well marked classes: 38 cm, 31—33 cm, 24.5 cm, and 19-21 cm. Of these, the second is by far most common and I have a distinct impression that a size close to 32 cm was popular among the writers of these documents. This would be the height of the roll as originally manufactured—the length would of course vary according to the amount required by the text. If the above classification represents current practice in Syria in the sixth and seventh centuries, it is singularly at variance with that described by the scholars who ultimately derive their information from the well-known (and much disputed) passage in Pliny's Natural History (13.74, 77-82). As interpreted by Lewis 1934.74-80, the evidence puts all the groups of papyri, from the smallest wrapping paper to the largest and choicest qualities (11.09-24.03 cm), in the same category as the two smallest above enumerated and cites nothing even approaching the 32 cm "normal" size which appears here so frequently.

Documents

14 Contract 3 fragments totaling 14 x 17.2 cm

Before 505

This fragment from the beginning of a contract is interesting only in being the earliest dated papyrus in the collection. The exact date is lost but can be restored within reasonably close limits. The year is 300-odd of the era which began in a.d. 106 (see Introd. § 5). The terminus ante quem, therefore, is 505. Since the next earliest papyrus in the collection dates from 5x2, it is likely that 1 4 is not much more than a decade or two older; in all probability it was written in the period 500-505 (years 394-399 of the era). Although nothing can be guessed of the nature of the text, we can be certain that it dealt with the private business affairs of one or more of the soldiers in the camp. The designation of the Bostra era by the term ITOUS T % -rroAecoj (lines 2 - 3 ) has been restored from Inscr. 1 1 4 ; it does not occur elsewhere among the papyri. The writing, in a practiced vertical hand, runs across the fibers. On the verso, at right angles to the writing on the recto (and hence also across the fibers) are remnants of three widely-spaced lines of what seems to have been an account. 1

f UTrcrria -rrj [jETa t t } v UTra[-nav] OA[(aouiou)

x0cutrpot&[tou

TroAecos tott|

5

±

38

± 30

tou

6tous tt)s

TpiocKocjiofcrroO evevriKoorou ur)vos

sv 5 EAoucr^

ivoXfsi

'A|3]pcx&nios A.[.]co[

1 There is a flourish in this line which the scribe evidently intended as a mark of distinction for the dating protocol. At the very beginning the usual cross is set within the upsilon of Oucrnq: which makes a great semicircular loop; in UTrcrriav the upsilon in a smaller loop encloses pi. So also in 16.1.

Release 29.3 χ 41.5 cm

Rhinocorura, May 30, 5x2

Flavius Stephan issues a release to his elder brother and fellow soldier Flavius Aws, declaring in the usual formula that he has no claim against him in a change of title to a certain object of stone —perhaps an olive press. The document is unfortunately shattered in the three central lines which describe the actual transaction. The contract was written in Rhinocorura. This town (modern El-'Arish) was at the Mediterranean coast on the border between Palestine and Egypt and in the course of its history belonged now to the one country and now to the other. During the Byzantine period, as pointed out by Maspero 19x2.8-9, 27—28, 135, it formed part of the diocese of Egypt, a fact which is borne out in 15 by the use of the Egyptian month. Rhinocorura was an emporium for trade from Arabia; it was fortified (at least in Byzantine times) and, with the other fortified towns along the coast, protected the Syria-Egypt route. Ruins of the ramparts were still visible in the thirteenth century. We have in 15 a fleeting glimpse of a little known military unit to which the two men were attached. It was an αριθμός or numerus, a company of approximately 200 men (see Introd. § 4c), distinguished by a specific title, here the Very Loyal Theodosians. A numerus Theodosiacus occurs in three inscriptions of about A.D. 600; see J. Tjader, Die niehtliterarischen lateinischen Papyri Italiens aus der Zeit 445-700. (Lund 1954) No. 16.26 and comm. 12, and cf. L. Casson in American Journal of Philology 78 (1957) 108. But its appearance in 15 is almost a century earlier. It becomes of considerable importance to determine just what the unit was and where it belonged. Now άριθμός when qualified is generally followed either by the name of the place where the unit was stationed (e.g. PLond 992.4 άριθμοΰ 'Άντινόου ττόλεως), or by an indication of the ethnic origin of the original members (e.g. PCairo Masp 67009^ 21 άριθμοΰ των γενναιότατων Σκυθών), or by both (e.g. PLond 999.3—4 and BL Φοιβάμμωνος άττό στρατιωτων [τοΰ καθιδρυμένου έν Έρμου] ττόλει άριθμοΰ των Μαύρων). The title here was derived from the Emperor Theodosius and must describe an αριθμός activated by him, just as some of the units created or reorganized by Justinian bore his name (e.g. Νουμιδών * Ιουστινιανών PLond 1663.5,18; Σκυθων Ίουστινιανων PGrenf II.95.1, PCairo Masp 67057 ΐ·8, cf. Maspero 1912.50-51) · There is historical plausibility for the creation of a unit in Palestine by Theodosius II (408-450), whose reign was troubled by the threatening incursions of the Huns but who was completely successful in his two wars (421—422, 441—442) against the Persians, and who may well have planned his unit as a watching post among the desert peoples. In any case we may suppose it to have come into being before 450. Where was the unit stationed ? At first sight it looks as though two soldiers "a long

42

E X C A V A T I O N S

A T

N E S S A N A

time ago natives of Nessana but now living here in Rhinocorura" must belong to a regimental camp in Rhinocorura and that this town was thus the base selected for strategic reasons as headquarters for the unit. However, certain doubts immediately present themselves. There is no mention of a camp—the scribe is concerned only with official and actual addresses. We do know that Nessana was a camp and that it was frequently called so by the soldiers living there. Moreover we know that the unit attached to it was of the strength of a numerus and that 15, filed with other papers dealing with the legal business of soldiers, was found in Nessana and not at Rhinocorura. The conclusion seems obvious. The military unit stationed in Camp Nessana was the numerus of the Very Loyal Theodosians. It was founded some years before 450 at a time when archaeological evidence suggests that considerable new activity was undertaken and about the time when the chapel of the martyrs Sergius and Stephan (the so-called "martyrium") was built (see Introd. §4b). By 500, if not from the outset, the soldiers had become a landed militia whose interests, as the papyri show, were more civil than warlike and had made them the elite of the flourishing settlement. But they did have military functions, as will appear in later pieces in the archive. The address of the two brother soldiers has further implications. While they were registered in official tax lists as natives of Nessana, they had long since (έκ ττολλοΟ χρόνου) established de facto residence in Rhinocorura. The unit to which they belonged was then clearly not located in permanent quarters in the camp or even in the village from which the camp took its name. These men resided a hard day's journey from headquarters and could not have been subject to call at brief notice. We may suppose, although there are no instances in this collection, that other men were similarly detached from the unit. Actually Nessana and Rhinocurura were not even in the same province, a fact which explains why the scribe felt it necessary to give the de jure as well as the de facto address and why, when the contract was officially filed, it went into the archive at headquarters and not into that of Rhinocorura. The folds show that it was delivered tightly rolled (creases increase in width from 16 mm at the right to 32 mm at the left). Although badly damaged in the middle, all margins are found and the piece is reasonably complete. There are two main fragments (the one at the right considerably larger than the left), which are not contiguous. The space between the two pieces cannot be gauged with exactness and there may therefore be a margin of error of a letter or two in the restoration. At line 5 the fragments are 60 mm (about 15 letters) apart; at line 15 the space is 30 mm (about 7-8 letters). The scribe writes in a rapid slanting cursive, parallel to the fibers. He makes considerable use of an enlarged apostrophe as a word divider. In eight instances the sign divides a word from the next following: μηνι 'τταυνι (line l); ασφαλές ' ττεττοηται (line 2) ; ττροθεσι ' αναγκης (line 2) ; εμε ' μη (line 6) ; διάδοχοι ' μη (line 7) '> σε'τον (line 7)', διακατοχους 5 περί (line 8); Στέφανος'εις (line 13). In one instance a word is divided from both following and preceding ειρη μενού 'αριθμού ' ορμώμενοι (line 4)· In three cases the apostrophe follows the last word in the line: Αβρααμιου (line 3); Νεσσανων (line 4); μη (line 6). Its use is confined to the formal document (line 1-15): it does not appear in Stephan's signature.

N O N - L I T E R A R Y

P A P Y R I

43

The verso contains indications that a papyrus of similar nature was at one time associated with it. It was used as a blotter and three distinct lines are represented in "spiegelschrift" The second line is fairly clear and may be read as follows:

A similar instance of blotting occurs on the back of 24. The address was written as usual on the outermost fold, at right angles to the script on the inside. It is too badly rubbed to be read.

5

10

15

E X C A V A T I O N S

44

Instead of

A T

N E S S A N A

for but the formula ends in a mere scrawl. TrETroir)Toa. Perhaps M- before should be deleted as a false start. 19 Probably for avvcovcov ? But the letters have left little trace. See next line. 8

10

Rhinocorura City M a y 30, 512 This written guarantee has been executed voluntarily and without compulsion. Flavius Stephan son of Abraham, soldier in the regiment of the Very Loyal Theodosians, T o his blood brother Aws, also a soldier in the said regiment, both natives of Nessana Village a long time ago and presently residing here in Rhinocorura Greeting! I agree that as of this date and b y virtue of this m y document, neither I nor any person representing me nor m y heirs or assigns have any claim against you, m y elder blood brother Aws, nor any person representing you nor your heirs, assigns, or possessors, in the matter of the s t o n e . . . (Oath, signature of Stephan and two countersignatures) The fact that relatively few letters are supplied at the beginning of the line is an indication that, as in 16, much space was taken by initial upsilonenclosing a cross and by the abbreviation of The scribe made an error in the date. The fifth indiction of Anastasius' reign ran from September x, 51X, to August 31, 512 (the next indiction cycle is ruled out because in 526/527 there was but one consul). Payni 5 (May 30) falls in 512 and the consuls were then Paulus and Moschianus, as correctly given in 16, written two months later. Since it is impossible that the names of the consuls for 512 were not known in Egypt and Palestine before the end of May, we must assume that the scribe did not take the trouble to find out and carelessly inserted those of 511. For the use of the Egyptian calendar see Introd. §5 . ( s e e 2 For see PLond 77.8 (vi cent.) and PMon 13.10 and 14 (594): PCairoMasp 67169 bis 31 (569): ~ _ . The phraseology here is clipped: the full formula runs (e.g. BGU 317.2-3; PLond 77.' 6 7 ) . m a r k e d 6 Theform is new. The town has hitherto appeared (RE Rhinocolour a 841) as Rhinocorura or Rhinocolura, treated as a neuter plural or as a feminine singular, . The formula for the where abouts of the two men is a variant of the familiar 6ppicb(Jisvos 1

_ (Preisigke, 6 A phrase like would suit the context and fill the space. 7 - 8 The restorations are based on BGU 317.8-9 (580/581):

~ " " ~^ ~ _ Other variants are found in PCairo Masp 67166-67170. 9 A stone mill or olive press may perhaps have been the object under discussion, 1 6 - 1 8 Stephan's spelling does not seem to call for correction, except to note that stands for and ems is a mistake for 17 Perhaps is to be supplied in the lacuna line 19 and note) or , but room must be left for the noun governing . If this is the same as the one qualified by AiOivris in line 9 the word must be short. 19 The two concluding notes are by men who have the same names as the parties to the agreement. The second is a mere scrawl, but the first is in a l y cramped hand quite different from that used by the Stephan who wrote lines 15-18. It may be that the dockets mean "executed by Stephan", "debt paid by Aws" but despite the similarity of names it seems also possible that the two men were officials in the camp at Nessana who checked the document for the files there.

Division of Property 73 χ 29 cm

July 11, 512

This papyrus records changes in the ownership of property jointly held by Zunayn son of Abraham, John son of Asad, who was a soldier (καθωσιωμέυω, line 23), and, in a lesser share, John's sister (lines 38-40). An interesting feature of the new disposition is that Zunayn accepts 4 solidi from the common fund in lieu of his share of a garden plot (lines 7-11) and sells his share of another parcel to John for xx/ 2 solidi (lines 14-17, 28-32). The remnants of the witnesses' signatures (lines 45-54) show that they contained a formula not elsewhere encountered. The papyrus is complete at top and bottom, but the rest is badly shattered. The margins are unevenly broken: a few letters of each line are lost at the left, while at the right about one-third is missing near the top and the loss increases toward the bottom. The hand is the flowing cursive of a trained scribe, writing across the fibers. Initial iota regularly has the trema. Restoration of the text is not easy in view of the loss of both beginnings and ends of lines and of the irregularity of margins. Only 7 lines can be restored with reasonable certainty: 60 letters are contained in line 24; 59 in lines 2 and 20; 58 in line 36; 56 in line 7; 53 in line 3; and 52 in line 23. The average is in the neighborhood of 56 and restorations are based on lines of approximately that length. A description of the property being divided by the three persons follows. To facilitate indentification, parcels are designated, both in the discussion and in the translation below, by letters. x. A small garden (κηττίον) located as shown in Figure χ (the rectangular shape of the fields is of course schematic). al-'Ubayd

Ρ

A west

F east

Zunayn

John

John

Elias Figure 1 This parcel A F is described in lines 7-11, 24-25. In selling out his interest in A, Zunayn is presumably retiring in favor of his partner Johnwhoholdsnot merely F but also the plot adjoining it on the east and who thereby extends his contiguous holdings. Probably this adjoining plot belonging to John is also garden.

46

E X C A V A T I O N S

A T

N E S S A N A

2. A parcel which may possibly also be garden (cf. the κήπος lying to the north of it) which is cited in lines 11-13, 26-28, as shown in Figure 2.

garden of Bagdathos

G

B

Zunayn

John Zunayn

John

p

Figure 2 Here the basis of the agreement is equally clear. Both men already own plots adjoining B G and in the division each adds to his own plot half of the field formerly owned jointly. 3. A field called Abiathalbon cited in lines 14-17, 29-31, as shown in Figure 3.

John

ρ

C

H

heirs of

Abiathalbon

rus

heirs o f Abraham Figure 3 Zunayn has an undivided interest in Abiathalbon, which John buys for 1V2 solidi. If we are to assume that John's sister had a share in this field, we reach a valuation for the whole plot of 41/ 2 solidi; if the men alone owned it, the value would be 3 solidi, with which we may compare 8 solidi, the value of the garden.

N O N - L I T E R A R Y

P A P Y R I

47

4. A second field, called A l o n . . . . and described in lines 17-20, does not reappear in the list of parcels allocated to John. The quid pro quo (since each man received five parcels) may have been the vineyard listed below as item 6. 5. A third field, called Aivegla and described in lines 20-23, has also no connection with John's portion except that it joins some of his property on the east. John's corre sponding share seems to be the field listed below as item 7. 6. A vineyard described in lines 32-34. See item 4 above. 7. Another named field described in lines 35-37 and perhaps the equivalent of Airegla mentioned in item 5. 8. A parcel which cannot be identified in view of the condition of the text (lines 39-40).

We have thus a fair picture of the holdings of two members of the group of soldierfarmers located in the village. Each owns more than the five parcels of land here allotted to him, for in the property descriptions it will be observed that Zunayn owns at least one adjoining field B-G, while John owns five (A—F, B-G, C-H, E, J). After the present transaction was completed, the two men were in possession respectively of 4V2 SiTidz1I2 fields, so that their total holdings were at least 3V2 and Q1I2- We do not of course know the size of the plots, but it would seem that John son of Asad was a considerable landowner and that he was interested in extending his acreage, while Zunayn was satisfied with cash. The fragmentary character of the end of the papyrus leaves the share of the third party uncertain, but it seems to have consisted (lines 39—40) of one parcel of land only. All of this property lay εξ ανατολών τής κώμης (line 6), that is, to the east of the village proper. This area (see Mayerson in Nessana 1 and Mayerson 1955.229, 255-257), located across the wadi from the town, was the site of ancient vineyards, one of which may well be that described in lines 32—34. Wooley-Lawrence 1936.136 noted that "eastwards the great plain, now sparsely scattered with thornbushes, shows signs of ancient cultivation." The parties to the contract do not appear elsewhere but a few details may be inferred about them from the document itself. The two men were soldiers (line 3), and their contract naturally found its way into the army archive. The division was not in settlement of an inheritance. Perhaps Zunayn was married to John's sister and the split came about after a divorce. + υπατία Φλ(αουίοον) Παύλου και Μοσχιανοΰ [των ένδοξ(οτάτων), έτους τετρακοσιο]στοΰ έβδώμου μηνός Πανέμου είκάς δευτέρα έν κώ[μη Νεσσάνοις όρίου ττόλε]ως Έλούσης" Φλ(άουιοι) Ζοναινος Άβραα[μ]ί[ου] κ[αΙ 'Ιωάννης Ασαδου στρατ(ιωται) άττό κ]άστρου Νεσάνω[ν 5

διαι]ρέσεως γενωμ[ένης . .]

]δαττοισ. . βο[

± 23 ±27

[

6ντ]ων έξ ανατολών της είρημένης κώμ[ης

± *3

ελαχεν μέν τω

καθ(ωσιωμένω) Ζοναινω είς τό κατ' αυτόν μέρος άττό του κηττίο[υ τό δυσμιαΐον μέρος γίτ]ονες ανατολών ' Ιωάννου Ασαδου δυσ[μών

±

.. .].μια βορρά Αλοβεου Φεσανου νότου Ήλί[ου

άνθ' ου δμολογεΐ

22

E X C A V A T I O N S

48 10

15

20

25

30

35

40

2n d

45

hand

AT

N E S S

ANA

N O N - L I T E R A R Y

P A P Y R I

7

49

co of Zovaivco corrected from ou

Nessana Village District of Elusa CityJuly 11, 512 Flavius Zunayn son of Abraham, Flavius John son of Asad, soldiers of the camp at Nessana, . . . (and. . . sister of John) have made a division of properties. . . lying to the east of the aforesaid village... The portion allotted to the very loyal Zunayn consists o f : a) The western half of the small garden bounded as follows: E property of John son of Asad W .. . N property of al-'Ubayd son of Faysan S property of Elias In lieu of this property Zunayn agrees to accept 4 solidi from the joint holdings. b) The western half of the . . . bounded as follows: E property of John son of Asad W Zunayn Js own property N garden of Bagdathos S ... c) Share of Abiaihalbon waived to John son of A s a d for the sum of 1V 2 solidi. The boundaries are as follows: E property of the heirs of . . . rus W ... N property of John son of Asad S property of the heirs of Abraham son of . . . d) Another field called Alon... of which the boundaries are: E ... W property of al-'Ubayd son of Faysan N ... S property of heirs of Abraham, father of Sa'd Allah e) One half section of the field called Airegla E property of John son of Asad W property of A r m . . . N ... S ...

whose boundaries are:

The portion allotted to the very loyal John son of Asad consists of : f) The eastern half of the small garden bounded as follows:

4

5 0

E X C A V A T I O N S E W N S

John's own property of property of property of

A T N E S S A N A

property Zunayn son of Abraham al-'Ubayd son of Faysan Elias

g) The eastern half of the ... bounded as follows: E John's own property W property of Zunayn son of Abraham N garden of Bagdathos S ... h) Share of Abiathalbon in the ... bounded as follows: E property of the heirs of . .. rus W ... N property of John son of Asad S property of the heirs of Abraham John has given Zunayn the price agreed upon, 1V2 solidi. i) The . .. portion (?) of the vineyard whose boundaries are: E ... W ... N property of the heirs of Z... S ... j) Another field called ..., whose boundaries are: E property of the heirs of Abraham father of Sa'd Allah W John's own property N property of the heirs of Abraham son of Sa t d Allah S ... The portion allotted to ... sister of the said John ... (Penalty clause, witnesses, and signatures partly preserved) I The line begins with a flourish (the cross enclosed in a broad semicircular loop of upsilon) giving the impression of marked indentation; see 14.1. 4 The name of the third party to the contract, John's sister (see line 39) is expected in this line. 7 τό δυσμιαΐον μέρος: restored from lines 24-25. 8 Citing of the compass points in the Colt papyri always begins with the east although the order of the other points varies; cf. 21, 22, 24, 31. 9 Something like λατομία or καλαμία is expected. The property seems to be ownerless. The suggested reading άνθ' ου ό μολογεΐ seems to be demanded here and in line 14 both by sense and length of line. However (ελαχεν) δοΰναι in line 31 may indicate that όμολογεϊ is to be omitted. 9-10 άττολαμβάνειν Youtie. Also in line 15. II Something like άττό τοΰ κηττίου (as in line 7) may be lost here and in line 26 (where a somewhat shorter reference is demanded by the space) since the property adjoining it on the north is κηττος (linei3). 14 The location of Abiathalbon is given in line 29 as a word of about 16 letters. Here the space requires 4 letters, unless, as seems possible, όμολογεϊ

was abbreviated ομ/ in which case 10-12 letters might fit both lacunae. For other names of fields see Index Vb. 15-16 Restorations from lines 30-32. 17 Σαδάλλου is not to be supplied here, as at first seems likely from line 20. He is described there as the son of Abraham and the size of the lacuna does not permit ττατρός· 21 For άρμακίς see 31.10 n. The other half of this field may have been the share of the third party to the contract, John's sister. 26 γίτονες here seems to introduce a dittography extending to γίτονες in the following line. 32 Perhaps δυτικών is to be supplied. The remain ing portion did not go to Zunayn nor, apparently, to the third party in the contract (lines 39-40) as the northern boundaries of the two portions are different. 34 The lacuna contains the name beginning Z, νότου and another name and perhaps patronymic. 35 Perhaps αλλο [χωρίον λεγόμενον ± 14 εν Tfj. If this is correct the vineyard in line 33 was also known as a χωρίον.

N O N - L I T E R A R Y T h e l i n e s e e m s t o o s h o r t ( 4 4 l e t t e r s ) if is o m i t t e d . 39-40 -p^g p o r t i o n a l l o t t e d t o J o h n ' s s i s t e r c o n s i s t e d of a s i n g l e i t e m , p r e s u m a b l y a p l o t o f l a n d . T h e description of this plot d o e s not f o l l o w the p a t t e r n o f t h e o t h e r s , a s t h e r e is t o o l i t t l e r o o m f o r t h e n a m e of t h e p i e c e if is t o b e r e a d . 41 ~ 42 T h e p e n a l t y c l a u s e is e v i d e n t l y c o n t a i n e d in t h e s e l i n e s b u t t o o m u c h h a s b e e n l o s t f o r r e s t o r a 36

4*

P A P Y R I

51

t i o n . A v e r b , l i k e cbpfcravTo, is e x p e c t e d at t h e b e ginning and Trpocrrinou m a y h a v e o c c u r r e d at the end. In 2 1 . 2 4 - 2 7 where the terminology differs b u t t h e g e n e r a l s e n s e is a p p l i c a b l e , t h e i n f r i n g e m e n t p e n a l t y is 6 s o l i d i . 4 6 T h e f o r m u l a is n o t e n c o u n t e r e d e l s e w h e r e , 51 o c c u r s , as h e r e in t h e s e n s e o f " c o n t r a c t , " in S B 4 8 4 3 : cos TTp6i ducunL T h | ordiJaHi are t\en (he ranking m e m b e r s o f t h e collegium prtorum and are delegated tQ r n t t h e c o l l 5 e g l u n f ( P M o n 2.1, supported by

IIO

E X C A V A T I O N S

Maspero 1912.106, n. 6), while the primicerius is obviously a superior officer, probably chief of staff of the priores. The situation is the same at Nessana, where the chief is assigned two dromedaries while the priores, here differentiated from the primicerius, receive six. 4-7 The four men here listed are not the priores of line 3, as the allotment of animals shows. The symbol which precedes the names was clearly written at the same time as the names themselves and is not a later correction or addition. It is precisely like the usual sign for όλον or όμου but neither of these meanings fits here. The context suggests that the men are priores, in which case the numerus probably had ten or more of these staff officers. 8 The word ττείοαθαι is in somewhat smaller letters but was not a gloss or correction. There is no clue to its meaning beyond the fact it may be used in contrast to the symbol ζ in lines 4-7. It would appear that Menas also was a prior. 9 δουκικός as cited by Maspero 1912.85, 86 means no more then "military" as opposed to "civil." The papyrus evidence is equally vague, merely connect ing it with the office of the dux. It is more specific here. The five men were under-officers (i.e. not in the KOi νόυ ττριόρωυ listed in lines 2-8) or specialized regular troops. The connection with cursores in the following entry suggests that they may have been scouts, like the SOUKCCT copss mentioned frequently in the Strategikon (e.g. line 18). 10 cursores are mentioned in POxy 1920,2050 and Stud Pal 8.1051 (all vi cent.). They are here cour iers and may have been soldiers rather than officers.

A T

N E S S A N A

The reading is not satisfactory. The papyrus was broken in two at this point and letters are lost or distorted in the ragged join. Thesecondcxy j of the duplicated plural is quite clear, but the traces of the first seem different. After writing ΓEcopy icp the scribe, misled by the last three letters, absent-mindedly continued to write -yicopyis. The third letter after και may be the flourish of an abbreviation but άγ(ία) Mapiadoes not seem possible. It is however clear that, whatever the exact reading, two churches (or one dedicated to two saints) are entered as recipients of dromedaries. 12 Characmoba is the picturesque gorge city (modern El-Kerak) on the road from Petra to Amman. It had a long history as a stronghold, having been successively the Moabite capital Kir captured by David and recovered by King Mesha (whose "Moabite Stone" was found at nearby Dhiban), one of the forts guarding the Nabatean route out of Petra, an early center of Christianity and the site of a great Crusader castle. In the sixth century it was part of Palaestina Tertia (Jones !937-535) and hence under the same administration as Nessana, but it is surprising to find here its churches being subsidized by a levy on Nessana. 13 The camp church is that of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, the North Church of the excavators. 15 No explanation for εγττητιτω is apparent. The reading is clear. If it stands for expeditus the mean ing may be "muster" or "expedition." The force of καί may be either to include this entry with the ecclesiastical ones above, or to describe an addi tional entry. In view of the blanket entry of seventeen animals, the latter is the more likely. 11

Military Account 23 χ 25 cm

Plate 4

VI

This account of military payments is broken at top and bottom but perhaps little more than a line or two is lost at each place. The account deals throughout with money and falls into two sections. In the first (lines 2-9) the amounts are rather large, running (in what seems to be a regularly descending order) from 91 to 28 solidi. Three entries introduced by άττό τών are partial payments or deductions, as can be seen in lines 8-9 where the amounts entered are smaller than those described in the listing. Three other items are preceded by ύττέρ and what seem to be groups of officials. The second section (lines 10-21) deals with markedly smaller amounts of money (3 to 10 solidi), almost all in the name of individuals and all preceded by διά. It seems evident that the scribe was concerned with receipts rather than expenditures, that the amounts are receipts from taxes (especially line 18) and that the persons mentioned had some part in collecting them. The document seems to stem from the camp, as is suggested by mention of the priores, ducici, and optioprinceps. The district warden of line 20 is certainly not military, but then he may have been a resident of Caesarea. Other references are not conclusive. Theremaybein line 9 mention of a ranking official, for John's title ενδοξότατος (illustris or gloriosissimus) indicates high social position and in the context suggests that its holder may have been a comes domesticorum (Hornickel 1930.8-11). One of the inscriptions found at Auja (Inscr. 1, dated c. A.D. 530) reads: Ό ένδοξ(ότατος) κόμ(ης) τών καθ(ωσιωμένων) δο[μεστικών κ(αι)] δισκούσσωρ.

The document is undated but the hand and the occurrence of the topoteretes (20η) fix it in the sixth century. Closer dating is suggested by the personal names. A Flavius Victor son of Abraham is mentioned (19.1 ,9) as a soldier at Nessana in 548 and a Zeno (son of Firsan) is a soldier and landowner in 569 (24 -7). Neither of these persons can be identified with certainty, but the possibility of identity exists and 36 would accordingly be assigned to the middle of the century. Sums in the account are paid as usual in solidi and their fractions. In line 2 and passim, β indicates 2/ 3 (rather than 1I2) solidus or, in actual money, the double τριμήσιον; 1 Z 3 solidus (line 3) is of course the τριμήσιον or triens; and Vie (line 2) equals ix/ 2 siliquae or 375 nummia. The full sum in line 2 (91 2U Vie sol.) could thus have been paid with 91 solidi, 2 τριμήσια and 375 bronze nummia. The handwriting is a very rapid, thin cursive without slant. Abbreviations are usual: ν νομίσματα, > ΰττέρ, (¾ διά, S καί. Plurals are abbreviated by doubling the final letter, e.g., δου^ (line3, see 35 introd.). Final ου is indicated in two ways: by the epigraphical style, common in the Negeb (Αβρααμι*, line 14, Στεφαν", line 16) and by the detached

112

E X C A V A T I O N S

AT

N E S S A N A

raised letter line 15). A combination of the two styles appears in (line 12) and icrrp (line 15). Several corrections or revisions seem to have been made in the text, but the fragmentary condition of the papyrus makes it difficult to distinguish between the original and revised versions. In the lower right hand corner, opposite 1 7 - 2 0 , are three short but complete lines of text. These, written like the interpolated lines 4 and 7 in blacker ink, probably a second hand, seem to be calculations; see Plate 4. The other side of the document contains the protocol 42. Since this must have been written first, we can conclude that the present account was written on the "verso." On both sides the writing runs parallel with the fibers. traces of a line

7 - 8 letter annotation 5

] 7 letter annotation

10

15 20

9. .Perhaps from in behalf the 72 pounds 510 of the sol. . of . . given clerks 16 the scouts . . ..to .(?) 7the in of small most . letters, illustrious v is John clear.Jonathan (?) 6 A t?

5 7 15TTJ5. LineThe probably line was inserted inserted later, later. like

22

1

end of 79 91 28( 30 40 28 line, V2 /?) Vie V3 /. .changed . sol.impossible from 8.

N O N - L I T E R A R Y

P A P Y R I

through ... through Abthallos son of Za t wan through the staff officers, given to the ... through Stephan, adjutant through Victor son of Abraham through John, physician through Victor, al-'Ubaid, and Stephan through Zeno, Gomberos and al-'Ubaid through . .. of public taxes of the three camps through Reka ( ) in Caesarea the amount which he took for the account of the district warden ... through ..., Stephan and Abraham 3 The δουκικοί in35 (see note to line 9) seem to be scouts, either regular soldiers or under-officers. The letters lost may have been numbers: the only remaining trace is the stroke of abbreviation over the second letter, των does not fit. 4 Possibly νοταρίων is to be restored for vv. σχολερος does not appear elsewhere as a noun or personal name. 8 The numerals φι like οβ in the following line are larger and spaced. Presumably νο(μ.) is omitted. 12 The reading ενκλινου (with raised epigraphical ou) is clear. The letters κλιν are larger than the rest and perhaps Iv κλινου( ) is intended. The priores were the officers who comprised the staff of the numerus; see 35.2η. 13 In the deposition made before camp officials in 19 the optioprinceps is apparently a subordinate of the scriniarius. The title does not appear elsewhere. In 19-4 as here the form is abbreviated and optioprincipalis is a possible resolution, but the word is written as a unit in both places. The oplio is not treated in full by Maspero 1912 but the passages cited by Preisigke, Worierbuch leave no doubt of his subordinate character —he is an aide, adjutant, or assistant to various higher officers. 15, ie The marginal note, L crossed with a diagonal

s

ii3 6 5 2/: 6 10 3 Vi 6 5

8

stroke, is similar to that described in PStrass 27.35. Preisigke explains it there, in PFlor 71 and in other instances cited in his Worterbuch, as standing for Σ,ή(τει) or some similar form. It is here not a later addition, and must therefore have been an indica tion by the scribe as he made the entry that something needed further chcck or investigation. 18 The first word is probably a name, as are most of the words in lines 10-21 introduced by διά. It would be instructive to know the names of the three camps so informally mentioned here. A list of forts in the area is given in Avi-Yonah 1940.39. 19 For mention of Caesarea in the Colt papyri see 37.5n. 20 The τοποτηρητής, according to Maspero 1912. 99η, was not a military man (or at best was the civil counterpart of the vicarius) but a high official in the administration of the province. All citations of his activities date from the sixth century and it is possible that he is to be identified with the loci servator. The meaning of the entry in lines 19-20 is obscure but the man seems to be the district warden of Caesarea rather than of Nessana. Citations in Sophocles support the equivalent locum tenens and that usage would fit equally the vague allusion here.

Account of Military Camels 125.5 x S1Cm

560-580?

This list affords some suggestions as to the nature of the force stationed at Nessana. The main heading is lost and the piece is fragmentary but the regularity of the entries and the subheads in lines 5 and 15 leave no doubt that while the scribe was primarily concerned with an inventory of the camels attached to the unit, he was in effect making a register of personnel. The men are grouped under their sergeants (δέκαρχο?, decurio). Unlike the requisition of animals in 35, which details both dromedaries and camels, 37 deals with camels alone. Unless for practical reasons the distinction is here ignored, it would seem that these men and animals are engaged in transport rather than action. The chief clues to the interpretation of the piece lie in the two subheads and the two glosses in lines 33 and 40. Whatever the precise text of lines 5 and 15 may be (see notes) the general meaning seems clear: this is a list of the camels (and their drivers) detached from squads commanded by the decarchs Sergius, 'Abd Allah, etc., and sent on missions to Caesarea or to Egypt. Four of the eight squads were accompanied by their com manders, for camels were assigned to them (lines 6, 35, 41, 46), the other groups, consisting of two to five men, went alone. The squads were therefore larger than here listed and the other four officers must have been detailed elsewhere with the rest of their men. See Introd. § 4c. The papyrus preserves some series of small round perforations made, after the piece was rolled, for the purpose of inserting a string which could be fastened with a mud seal (cf.39 introd.). Wormholes and other lacunae make it difficult to follow all the series of holes, but enough are preserved to show that it was rolled much less tightly than 39 and probably not folded. Both sides were used—on the other side is 31—the lines on both running parallel with the shorter dimension, in 37 parallel with the fibers. Since neither piece preserves a date, there is no sure indication of priority, but the likelihood is that 31 came first. There may be a clue to the original size in the fact that two thirds or three fifths of 31 is lost—most of it at the end, but some also at the beginning. If the missing portion of 37 was like that preserved, we may infer an original list of some 120-144 lines containing the names of 20 or more decarchs and 90-110 men and camels. This would imply a total squadron of 200 men under 20 sergeants. Some slight indication of the date may be afforded by the names of persons. Three of the names and patronymics appear elsewhere in the archive: 39 Faysan son of Khalaf Allah 35 Stephan son of Zunayn 23 Zunayn son of Abraham

27.3, 6, 11 21.38 16 passim 79.36, 54 46.9, 10, Ii

(570) (562) (512) (early vn cent.) (605)

N O N - L I T E R A R Y

P A P Y R I

115

Of these only Faysan can safely be identified—he is called a soldier in 27—and a rough date 560-580 given to 3 7 . The writing runs with the fibers, upside down to the recto. The scribe used a thick pen to write in a coarse, slightly inclined hand. He is inconsistent in his abbreviation of Generally he writes but the more formal version appears in lines 6, 27, 28, 32 and a short diagonal dash (line 33) constitutes an intermediate form. Simple appears frequently, especially at the beginning, and in lines 1 - 1 4 the numeral following is omitted. The variations are not given in the text.

traces of four lines

5

10

15

20

25

8*

1

E X C A V A T I O N S

AT

N E S S A N A

30

35

40

45

less likely but possible

9

or haps Acthovcc

25 48

Possibly Possibly

TTcnrpiKiou or

16

but not Final

27>28•41

28>38

18

Perhaps 38

Per-

is raised for lack of space.

1 The traces of letters are in a small upright hand markedly different from that of the rest of the piece. If this is a heading, it is not of the same type as those in lines 5 and 1 5 . The letters read The next three lines are represented by such slight dots that there may well have been a"blank space here. 5 Although broken, this line is clearly parallel with line 1 5 (especially since line 6 is also parallel with line 16), and a combined reading of the two should yield sense. But there arc difficulties. The readings when juxtaposed are: 5 '

It seems certain that the first two words are the same and inevitably suggests itself for the third. But in that case two letters precede it in line 5 and the syntax is faulty. Finally,

' A|i|aovi'ou ?

seems most plausibly to be supplied at the end. However, there seems little point in repeating a heading except to mark some difference, and this then must lie either in the middle word or, if this and the rest are really identical, in the name of the decarch which follows (cf. ajyfcaraius criticus and. Iine6n). Caesarea is mentioned also in 36.ig and 74.5. The fact that camels were sent from Nessana to the capital of Palaestina Prima and also to Egypt indicates that they were on orders from the central government. If an analogy may be drawn from the much later papyrus 92 which reveals the routine under the Arabs, the detachments were sent in compliance with specific requisitions from a central office. For a good summary of the data concerning Caesarea see Avi-Yonah 1940.12-13. 8 The resolution of the abbreviation here and below as seems fairly certain despite the

N O N - L I T E R A R Y fact that the word has not hitherto appeared in Byzantine papyri and that resolutions like δεκ(ανικός) and δεκ(ουρίων) are possible. Theoccurrence of the title in this period is however vouched for by Sophocles and Maspero 1912.81. It denotes here not a high ranking officer but the sergeant of a small unit, originally (and perhaps still) numbering ten. The decarchy was of course a normal squad in the Byzantine military organization. A camel corps posted in Palmyra in 1951 was drawn up on the basis of a twelve-man squad (see further Introd., § 4c). The expansion of δεκ(ανίας) as in 135 is ruled out here by the presence of TOW.

P A P Y R I

1X7

The decarch here has no camel as does the Sergius of line 6. 21 The two dots and long dash may stand here for ομοίως, that is, "same patronymic as above," but the same meaning cannot be given to somewhat similar marks which occur elsewhere in the account: two short dashes in 31 and 36, one dash in 30 and 34. All seem to have been written as part of the entries; they are not checking strokes. 22 Omission of the decarch's names seems to indicate that the men were requisitioned by someone who did not know to whose unit they belonged. 16

Account of Money Payments VI

10.5 χ 19 cm

This brief account, only the bottom of which is lost, contains the names of seven persons, each accompanied by a sum of money. Whether these are sums paid to, or received from, the persons is not clear and in fact the whole nature of the account is rendered obscure by the use of the abbreviation δεκ( ) in the first line. In the intro duction to 37 this abbreviation was expanded δέκαρχος and it is very likely that the same word appeared here, both documents being then part of the soldiers' archive. But other resolutions are possible, e.g. δεκανία, δεκάδαρχος, δεκουρίων. If, following 135, δεκ(ανία$) is read instead of δεκ(άρχου) the accounts would deal not with the military but with liturgies or special assessments levied on the village of transport animals and money, which were collected by teams ( decuriae) of villagers organized under and known by the name of specific persons; see Johnson-West 1949.330-332. The account is written across the fibers in an upright, coarse hand. On the other side are the remains of a document of the same general period. The beginnings of eleven lines are preserved of which only line 5 can be read : εξεστι σοι τά γράμματα ου[. δεκ( ) Γεωργί[ο]υ TTcnfp]ικίου Άβραάμιος Apou Ζοναι(νου) Νώνος Αλδαες Ωυαινας Αειδου Σαδαλας Στεφάνο(υ) Ίωάνες * Ηλίας άδελφός ['Α](3ραά[μιος ]..[ !δε*

κερ(άτ.) < δ'

[κερ.]

e t c - U s i n § o n l y t h e entries for Elusa, Malaatha, and Birosaba, where the readings were not in doubt, it was established that the number of carats in 11(b) was 1 / 3 1 / 1 2 1 / 48 1 / 1 2 8 of the number of solidi in I. When this fraction was used as the divisor, the remainders were frequently trivial and the scribe disposed of the annoyance in a practical manner—he simply omitted the fractions. Thus he worked out Elusa as follows: of 792 V 2 V24 is 264 (omitting

,,

„

66 (

,,

16 (

,,

6 (

,,

minute fractions)

total 3 5 2 So too the small fractions in the base figure for Birosaba ( 1 1 5 3 1 / 2 1 / 3 Vie) resulted in wholesale lopping of fractions which would have become infinitesimal, but by omitting all of them the round sum of 5 1 3 was obtained. In the case of Malaatha the scribe blundered: (omitting Vie) (omitting V72) (omitting trifles)

(

„

„ )

The total registered (232) is a mistake for 2 3 1 if the three fractions are omitted or for 2 3 3 if they are included. All of the remaining entries involve restoration or uncertainties in reading but all check if subjected to the same method of calculation.

N O N - L I T E R A R Y

P A P Y R I

121

The amounts in col. in (lines 1 0 - 1 9 ) are also proportional (approximately 6 per cent) to those in col. 1 and the fraction used for the conversion was determined to be 1 / 24 1/64 1 /288- The two best preserved entries show how this fraction worked. B i r o s a b a : o f 1 1 5 4 (instead of 1 1 5 3

is

J>

i)

)

>3

>>

y

(The accountant used the higher figure as his base, meticulously added even the small fractions, and then slightly raised the total.) Malaatha:

of 524 y y > y

(The fractional 1/4 was omitted in the second step but all others were retained and the total 3i 2 / 3 is accurate.) The peculiar feature, exhibited by these two entries, of including all fractions and even of giving a total slightly higher than the correct one applies to other entries in this portion of the account. Nessana is larger by 1 / 24 even if all fractions are added; Mampsis and Chermoula are correct only if some of the smaller fractions are included; Birosaba is larger by 1/6 and Malaatha by 1 / 3 unless very small fractions are included; and Elusa is slightly larger even if all the fractions are added. Only Eboda is smaller (by Lji). There is no doubt that the accountant responsible for the arithmetic of col. 111 was more preoccupied with small fractions than the one who drew up col. n. It can also be determined that col. 1 rather than col. 11 was used as a base for col. 111, for the fraction 1/8 1/96 results in minor irregularities which do not occur in the other case. The accounting thus shows that from the original base figures (1) two others were derived, the first (11 b) in the fraction 1 / 3 V12 1Us V128 ( 621 /IO 2 4 o r roughly 60 per cent), the second (111) 1 j Z i 1 / u 1 / 2Se (35/576 or roughly 6 per cent); that separate registers were kept and that the original of 39 was compiled from three of these registers. At some central office, then, there must have been in existence a register containing the basic appraisals or quotas of the towns in the area. From this list was calculated two separate assessments of 1.85 per cent and 6 per cent. The scribe who compiled the whole merely transcribed the figures and made copies which were sent to the various towns concerned. While it is gratifying to have revealed this quota system as the basis of assessment, it is unfortunate that the names of the assessments themselves cannot be recovered. The main heading at the top of the list is lost and two other descriptive headings are doubtfully read: that in line 9 and the docket on the verso. The texts are as follows:

122

E X C A V A T I O N S

A T

N E S S A N A

These two statements should, one supposes, have something in common, and the second, since it described the piece as a whole, should be a more inclusive term than the first. But there seems little connection, beyond the suggestion of ετπκλασμοΟ for the first word and the conclusion that these are payments of an extraordinary tax based on land (Wallace 1938.26). Even to this there are two serious objections: all occurrences of έττικλασμός are very early (11-111 cent.) and the letters do not fit the traces. There seems certainly not enough room for μ in line 9, and έττί κλασ( ) is possible. The presence of άββα suggests payments to a church. What υττ( ) vtpiov λίτρων means must be left to others to decide. Since the headings are of so little assistance, it is necessary to examine further the list itself. The section included in lines 9-18 is complete (there is just sufficient blank space to show that no entry followed Malaatha) and only the title and one entry (Birsamis) was lost at the top. The papyrus then cannot possibly have contained the names of all the tax-paying villages in the province. Moreover, three places (Sobila, Birsamis, and Chermoula, see Abel 1938 11. carte x, reproduced in Figure 1) are in Palestina Prima. The list is therefore selective. But what is the basis for the selection ? I believe it is possible to answer this question by bringing in outside evidence. While no useful parallel to 39 is available in the papyri, there is a small group of inscriptions, long since published and much discussed, which furnishes welcome background (Alt 1921.4-13 and SEG 8.282). They are four in number, all found inBeersheba and all dealing with village assessments in various parts of Palaestina Tertia. Although the editors are not able to assign dates to them, a clue is afforded by the mention of συντελεσταί as responsible for part of the taxes. Since it was the reforms of Anastasius 1 (491—518) which shifted this responsibility from the curiales to the συντελεσταί, we may date the stones to the sixth (probably early sixth) century, i.e. contemporary with the soldiers' archive in Nessana. Now one of the striking features of all four inscriptions is that like 39, they deal only with portions of the area. Even in the imperial edict (Inscr. 1, pp. 4-8), which corrects the abuse of overcharging by publishing fixed tariffs and which must have been applicable to the province as a whole if not to the empire, only a small number of towns is enumerated. In Inscr. 2, which is more nearly complete, all towns come from the region of the wadi Arabah in Palaestina Tertia, but both Inscrs. 3 and 4 list towns in Prima, Secunda, and Tertia. The provincial scribes who drew up the texts for the inscriptions were concerned with local interests, and excerpted from general regulations those portions which were applicable to their towns and to certain others nearby. Thus Inscr. χ and 39 cover approximately the same territory; two towns (Mampsis andElusa) appear in both and one might with some confidence expect to find in the missing left portion of the inscription others of the towns listed in the papyrus. This area is the limes Palaestinae which has been studied intensively by Alt in a series of articles (1930, 1931, 1935, cf. Abel 1938 11. 179-182). Alt showed that the original limes consisted of a line of forts comprising Menois, Birsamis, Beersheba, Mampsis, and Chermoula, a line running from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea. Another line of forts ran from the

N O N - L I T E R A R Y

P A P Y R I

123

Dead Sea south to Akaba. The two lines were linked up by detachments at Mampsis, Elusa, and Abda, and to these we can now certainly add Nessana. These strongholds coincide almost exactly with the names in our document and when plotted on a sketch map show that we are dealing with the fortified area west of the Dead Sea (Figure 1). The document thus confirms at least part of the remark of Avi-Yonah 1940.28 that after A.D. 106 the limes "lost its military usefulness, but remained a fiscal unit into the Byzantine period." A second feature of the inscriptions, as pointed out by Alt 1921, is that the scribes seem to have arranged the towns into groups according to the amounts paid, descending from the highest to the lowest. In Inscr. 2 there are three distinguishable groups: PetraAila (lines 1-7), the hill country (lines 8-17), the Keralc region (line 18), and a total range for the 18 entries of from 5 to 65 solidi. The payments in the nine entries of 39 col. II range from 9 to 43 solidi, so that there may well be some connection between the two taxes and areas. The fact that the same relationship does not subsist between Inscrs. 1 and 2 (even although both deal with the same subject) does not entirely preclude the relationship, for it seems quite clear that different sections of the province —and presumably different provinces of the Empire as well—were subject to different sets of conditions in taxation.

PALAESTINA PRIMA (Gaza)

Chermouia,

(Menois) Sobila® Birsamis

Birosaba

Malaatha

Elusa ®Mampsis

Nessana ®) Eboda

PALAESTINA TERTIA

Figure χ Other features prominent in the inscriptions are not so directly related to the papyrus but still contribute to the background against which it must be considered. Two groups of persons are viewed as subject to the taxes: the military element consisting of the Umitanei under the control of the duces and the civil population, or rather the συντελεσταί —the association of citizens responsible for seeing that tax quotas were met.

124

E X C A V A T I O N S

AT

N E S S A N A

The taxes which the inscriptions list are three: the annona militaris (not named, but according to Alt, clearly indicated by the content); a supplementary tax for the members of the bureaucracy ; and a specific tax for the vicarius, perhaps the governor of Palestina Tertia. If Alt is correct in identifying the annona militaris as the chief tax in the inscriptions, then it may correspond to the smaller tax in the papyrus (col. 11). The tax for the vicar does not appear, and that detailed in col. in is disproportionate to the one earmarked in the inscriptions. The question as to the significance of the varied amounts cannot be answered for either the papyrus or the inscriptions. In order to state the problem in terms of the papyrus, the towns listed there are arranged in order of the size of their assessments (col. i). Fractions are omitted. Chermoula Birsamis Nessana Mampsis Eboda

2337 1414 1375 1356

Birosaba Sobila Elusa Malaatha

1153 1031 792 524

The figures surely represent relative differences in wealth and if, as in the inscriptions, the chief taxable groups were the landed border troops and the wealthier citizens, then the tax burden must ultimately have fallen on the land and these figures represent the equivalent of land values. An alternative theory suggests itself in view of the fact that all of the towns except Sobila contained forts or camps (see note on lines 1 - 8 ) namely, that the figures represent military strength. This might be borne out by the curious fact that the area covered by the forts at Chermoula, Nessana, and Eboda are respectively 8126, 2975, and 2700 square meters, figures surprisingly in consonance with those given above (Alt 1 9 3 1 . 1 6 and 1 9 3 5 . 1 8 ; figure for Nessana from Colt's report). But even if the criterion for wealth was in some way tied in with troops, these troops would be limitanei and the unit of land would still be the yardstick of tax assessment. It is best to leave the question unanswered. But one may note that, whatever the reason, Chermoula is here the outstanding town in the area, that Nessana stood high in the rating and Elusa astonishingly low. (two, possibly three, lines missing)

5

N O N - L I T E R A R Y

P A P Y R I

125

10

15

on the verso: 2

Not

as in line 13 below

10

17

Perhaps

1 All readings in this line are hazardous, as little remains. The key figure is the entry in line 14. 1 - 8 For references to the towns see Avi-Yonah 1940.28-29; 38-40. Six of the nine definitely had forts or were the site of military encampments: Nessana (the numerus of the Theodosians), Eboda (legionary camp), Chermoula (fort and equites scutarii Illyriciani), Birosaba (fort and equites Dalmataelllyriciani), Malaatha (fort and colors IFlavia), Birsamis (equites Thamudeni Illyriciani). Two of the remaining three (Mampsis and Elusa) are not

9 It would be helpful if this line could be read, but it has resisted every effort. Individual letters are clear but the lacunae come unfortunately at critical spots. is preferable to as there seems no room for p. A slight drop in the second stroke of may be a sign of abbreviation so that is possible. Letters above the line seem to indicate an abbreviation like T for but T is very doubtful. The 1 would also be dubiousif it were not for the two dots. may be for or may be the sign for ' and

cited as military centers by Avi-Yonah, but Alt treats Mampsis and Elusa as military units in the limes system, and Wooley-Lawrence cite forts there. Only for Sobila is evidence lacking.

may be read ( ) or epithet of (unless, indeed, breviated place name).

,

, as an is an ab-

Account of Disposition of Wheat 60 χ 32 cm

Early VII

This papyrus is in such bad condition that it did not at first seem to offer possibilities of a reading. It was a roll which had suffered seriously from dampness and insects, and only the repetitive nature of· the entries afforded the chance of arriving at a text. On the opposite side is 120, a contract written on the portion of the papyrus which was in worst shape and of this no text at all could be recovered—it is important only as suggesting an approximate date for 40. Under the circumstances, the text of 40 is surprisingly complete. Top and left margins are preserved and not more than a few lines are gone at the bottom. The right margin is not absolutely certain, as half of the papyrus was left unused, and the piece is so shredded that the exact ends of lines cannot be made out. Lines 13 and 14 seem to project into the blank portion, but these may be glosses. In general it appears that most of the lines are complete, as given in the text, and that at most only a few letters are to be supplied. However, because of the loss of the heading, the precise nature of the account rests on inference. It concerns a limited number of persons, two of whom occur repeatedly: Patrick, apparently the bookkeeper himself (έμοϋ, lines 13, 14) and Khalaf Allah son of Faysan. Amounts are registered in wheat and the two most common phrases used to describe the transactions, είς ττρασιν and els τροφΐα ("sale" and "salary"), are read with certainty. The six entries εις ττρασιν are, with one exception (line 5) confined to Patrick and Khalaf Allah, three of them to the former, two to the latter. Four of these five (lines 14, 15, 17, 22) follow the formula sis ττρασιν σίτου μόδια (or μοδίων) X τοϋ νομίσματος Υ, which seems to mean "entered as wheat for sale, X modia at the rate of Y to the solidus." It is unfortunate that the price cannot be recovered in any one of these cases but the amounts are read in three entries as 10, 32, and 21 modia. The text of line 16 provides a variant: if the dashes are correctly interpreted (see note to the line) the end reads σίτου μόδια ξ τοϋ κ μόδια . ., and there is a slight possibility that the concluding traces represent the remains of τοΟ νομίσματος. In that event the price was 20 modia to the solidus (rather cheap for the period). The amounts entered as receipts for salary (τροφεία) are three modia of wheat (line 11) and, in more doubtful readings, five (line 13) and twelve modia (line 18), but the value of the figures is practically nil as we do not know the period of time for which the payment is made, or the number of persons to whom it was paid (see note to line 18). Nor is there any specific indication of the position —soldiers, officials, or clergy—of the men to whom the salary was paid. The handwriting has considerable resemblance to that of 79. Both are very legible and squat with no slant; many of the individual letters (especially the characteristic ει)

N O N - L I T E R A R Y

P A P Y R I

are very similar, and the abbreviation . (for

in 7 9 is much like that of

127

(for

in 40. Epigraphical ou is used intermittently in 79, in 40 it appears regularly in and T. E v e n if the writer is not the same man, it would seem likely that the date of the pieces is close. Now 7 9 and 40 are the "verso" respectively of 3 0 and 120. Since 3 0 is dated 596 and 1 2 0 may be ascribed either to Justin I I or to Maurice, the terminus post quern for both 40 and 7 9 would be c. 600. If the Khalaf Allah, son of Faysan, who appears in the present document is the son and grandson respectively of the Faysan, son of Khalaf Allah, of 2 7 , dated 570, the terminus ante quern should be set relatively early in the seventh century. W e have here then an accounting for wheat which was disposed of in two ways: it was sold (apparently at varying prices), and it was given as salaries to certain individuals. It would seem that the wheat was the property of the community and that its disposition was in the hands of the officials in charge of the public granary. (traces of two lines)

5

10

15

20

0

Possibly, after.

.

.

_

but

8 and elsewhere impossible at end of line 1 6 - 1 6 In the right hand margin, between these 5 21 Perhaps uis pap, without sign of abbreviation 14

lines, a note]

20

128

E X C A V A T I O N S

The heading cannot be restored because of the paucity of traces. The cross is larger than the rest and cannot be the first letter of the caption. In view of εμού (lines 13, 14) it would seem likely that Patrick's name would appear either in the lost portion of this line or in the next. 2-3 These two lines have been so nearly destroyed as to suggest that they may have been deliberately expunged. It is even impossible to decide whether they began with διά or formed part of the heading. 8 A blank space after μα seems to indicate that this is a numeral. It cannot be read μ nor is the preceding word σιτ. 12 This entry departs completely from the formu la, but άνδρες εξ seems clear. 58 The scribe is careless with his use of dashes here and in line 22. They stand generally for ομοίως or "ditto" and are correctly used in line 20 to repeat είς τροφΐα and here, after σίτου, to repeat σίτου μόδια. But in 22 and here, after ττρδσιυ, they are superfluous, for είς ττρασιν has already been expressed. 1

A T

N E S S A N A

The entry has been carefully canceled by three parallel lines across the whole of it. 18 The phrase είς λή(μματα) ήμων εϊς τροφϊα occurs only here as a certain reading and is, in part or whole, restored in lines 8, 11, and 13. The general meaning "asreceipts for salary" seems clear enough, but the significance of ήμοον is not so sure. Three of the four passages refer to Patrick, the fourth (line ri) is doubtful. Since the heading of the list (line x) mentions Khalaf Allah, the pronoun would at first glance seem to deal with these two men but the phrase does not appear in any of the entries of the latter. It probably refers then to all the persons included in the list. 20 According to Inscr. 112 (= Alt 1921.40, no. 131) a Stephan son of Khalaf Allah died October 27, 541. But he was only twelve years old and cannot be identified with the man here. Another person of the same name is recorded in Inscr. 123. There is no date. 17

Protocol and Legal Document 118 χ 32 cm

Plate 2

VI

41 and 42 are grouped as examples of "protocols." Another forms part of 76 and a fragment of one is preserved in 60. The function of this type of document is described by Gardthausen 1911.75-78; Grohmann 1932.31-36 and 1952.32-35; PLond 1462 introd. The texts, highly decorative and practically unreadable, were written on the first (outer most) sheet of papyrus rolls, as a sort of manufacturer's label, containing the date, the place where the papyrus was made and the name of the official (the comes largitionum sacrarum) who had control of the industry. It was thus stamped as a product of a state factory, and a Novel of Justinian (44.2, dated 536) expressly forbade public notaries to draw up documents on papyrus which did not have the official label, or to permit the label to be cut from the roll. The purpose of this edict was obviously to encourage the use of government-owned stationery for legal papers but there is a clear implication that papyrus not so stamped, or with the stamp removed, must have been readily available. In fact, the injunction must have been generally ignored, in view of the fact that so few extant documents still preserve the protocol. A protocol cut from the papyrus roll and discarded before the roll was used appears in 42. Despite its woefully shredded condition, 41 has, like 76, the great value of preserving both the protocol and fragments of the text which came immediately after it — a good example of conformity to the ordinance of Justinian. The protocol consists of six lines of the decorative text. As usual, it is practically unreadable, but the fact that the fifth line consists of only some half dozen "letters" and the rest is left blank suggests that the writing actually made sense to the scribe. Bell long ago (PLond iv.418) wrote that "protocols were invariably attached to papyrus rolls the reverse way to the other κολλήματα composing the roll; i.e. the protocol was written on the verso of the papyrus and the κόλλημα containing it faced the same way as the recto of the other κολλήματα." The text of 41 was written across the fibers while the protocol ran with them. Gardthausen's observation (1911.76) that papyrus of inferior quality was used for the proto cols is also borne out here although the difference is rather in color than in texture. The papyrus is broken on all sides but the bottom, and there is no indication of the length of line. The width of the piece suggests, however, that not much is lost at either side and that the protocol itself measured 24 χ 32 cm. There is no possibility of dating the document beyond pointing out that it seems to belong to the military archive and is thus sixth century, for what little text can be seen among the shreds of the papyrus points to a formal document, probably a contract like the others in this group.

Protocol 24.5 χ 23 cm

Plate 2

YI

The largest and best preserved of the protocols in this collection was evidently torn from the roll to which it was attached before the roll itself was put to use. See 41 introd. and 76. The writing (which gives an illusion of legibility) runs parallel to the fibers, as does also 36, the account written on the other side. An exact date cannot be assigned but since it must have been written earlier than 36 it can safely be placed in the latter half of the sixth century. Top and bottom margins are intact, so that the width of the original roll can be fixed at 24.5 cm.

Contract about 144 χ 38 cm

VI

Several large rolls were in such fragile condition that they were left by Colt to be handled by the technical experts in the British Museum, who lavished time and skill in an effort to salvage them. When 43 emerged it was seen to be a piece of considerable size, written in a good scribal hand resembling those of some others in the military archive. It was clearly a contract of which certainly the ends and possibly the beginnings of lines were preserved. Closer examination showed, however, that it was a hopeless task to try to reconstruct the text. The papyrus had deteriorated badly and in parts consisted merely of masses of shreds which could not be handled without destroying the traces of letters. The very numerous fragments were arranged only approximately as they came from the roll. These were difficulties which could have been overcome, but a last obstacle proved insuperable. Some viscous substance had glued together the folds in various parts of the roll as it lay flattened under pressure and when the roll was opened it consisted of pieces of single, double and triple thickness. These glued fragments could not be separated. It was thus impossible to be sure that even contiguous fragments belonged to the same line and under the circumstances no attempt was made to complete a reading. It is possible however to say something about the piece from the scattered words and phrases which can be read. That it formed part of the sixth century military archive is obvious both from the skilled hand and the fact that it was a contract like so many of the others in this group. The portions of lines 3-7 which can be read are as follows: ]ενομενος παρά ' Ιωάννου ] χρόνων ίνδ(ικτίωνος) τετάρτης μηνός ] έττΐ ττασιν ] υπαρχόντων

[

This is the conclusion of a dating formula and the beginning (with ITTI πασιν άγαθοϊς) of the contract proper. But the first line has no place in such a formula and probably is a later line glued over the correct one. In addition to John above there is mention of one other person: τω Zovatvou ΰιω. The phrase έκ]εϊθεν όρμώμεν[ος occurs, as frequently in these documents. Some sort of transfer or division of property is indicated by διαφέροντος and ψιλοΟ τόπου μετά παντός [αύτοϋ] δικαίου A sum of money is mentioned: νομισματ]ίων δοκίμων τον άριθμόν δέκα

The repetition several times of κληρονόμων indicates the presence of the usual security clauses and a change of handwriting suggests that one of the witnesses' signatures was present. What we have therefore is a property settlement which before unrolling was nearly complete.

Receipt for Loan of Money 12 x 24 cm

Plate 3

598

A small group of papyri deals with the private affairs of one Patrick son of Sergius and of some of the other dignitaries of the monastery with its Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus. Patrick and his father were commemorated by a tombstone which had long been known (Alt 1921.42) but was recovered by the Colt Expedition in 1936 and transferred to the Palestine Museum (Inscr. 12). The stone (probably replacing a temporary one for Sergius) was situated over both graves and had obviously been installed after the death of Patrick, for the two epitaphs, were cut at the same time and placed symmetrically on the stone. The stonecutter's carelessness about nominative and genitive raises a problem: the father's epitaph reads κατηθη ο μακαρ σεργιος πατρικίου -ττρεσβ κ ηγουμένου, the son's κατηθη ο μακαρ πατρικίου Σέργιου ττρεσβ κ ηγούμενος. If ηγουμένου in the former is a mistake for ηγούμενος, as Πατρικίου certainly is for Πατρίκιος in the latter, then both father and son were styled priest and abbot. If it is not a mistake, the stonecutter intended Patrick's title to be included and ττρεσβ(υτέρου) should be read. The former hypothesis seems more plausible and Kirk-Welles' statement that both men held the same office in the church (Kirk 1937.216—2x7 and commentary to Inscr. 12) may be accepted. Sergius son of Patrick died while abbot of the monastery, on February 10, 592, and may then have been succeeded by his son Patrick. 44, as it happens, written in Patrick's own hand in 598, does not mention the title. Five years later, in 602 (45), he is styled ήγώμενος αγίου Σεργίου Νεσάνων and on July 16, 605, in a formal contract of loan, he receives what must then have been his full title (46.3 also 147): αναγνώστης καΐ ηγούμενος του αγίου καΐ ένδοξοτάτου μάρτυρος Σεργίου και Βάχχου. Presumably he became πρεσβύτερος after 605. His activities as depicted in the papyri are exclusively secular and trivial: in the above documents he is concerned with money matters, in 47 and 53 with food. But he and his family were people of account locally, for on his death on July 24, 628, he was buried near the altar of his church. Two years later (630) his sister Maria died and she also was buried in the church (Alt 1921.43). The family tree may perhaps be extended back another two generations by a stone (Alt 1921.40, n. 4) no longer extant but giving the date of the death of a soldier Flavius Sergius Patricius (surely "son of Patrick") as 563/564. The tree would then be as follows:

N O N - L I T E R A R Y

P A P Y R I

133

Patrick I Flavius Sergius j 563/564 I Patrick I Sergius f 5 9 2 1 Patrick

1

| 628

1 Maria

t 630

The loan to which 44 refers was in the small amount of a single solidus but was secured by amusingly excessive formality, for 44 is an acknowledgement by the lender that he has received the receipt of the borrower. It would appear that part or all of this transaction was carried out by messenger, i.e., that Patrick sent the solidus (or a draft for the money—see line 2n) to the borrower Stephan, who sent back the note ( y p a n u o r n o v ) , receipt of which is hereby acknowledged. The papyrus, written across the fibers, is complete except for some letters at the ends of lines. It is dated by the indiction and the Arabia Provincia era (see Introd. § 5) and although month and day are lost, the limits are fixed between March 22 and August 31, 598. Immediately following the date is a notation in shorthand. This is of some importance, in the present state of our knowledge of this complicated subject, for the fact that it is carefully written and has a definite context which may suggest clues to decipherment. The introduction to this subject is H. J . M. Milne, Greek Shorthand Manuals (Egyptian Exploration Society, London, 1934) where the earlier literature is cited. The sign ^ which occurs in this notation is cited by A. Mentz, Archiv 8 (1927) 41 as the equivalent of the letters crip.

shorthand notation, about 1 3 letters

I, Patrick son of Sergius, have just received from you, the very loyal Stephan son of . . ., your note for the one solidus (x sol. less x carat) which you owe m e . . . Written entirely b y m y hand, on the . . . of the month . . ., 598. 2 an imperfectly preserved receipt Pland 4 2 (vi cent) has . __ which the

still probable. Spohr suggests that the payment was made -per litter as i.e. by draft,

editor L. Spohr interprets as a mistake for Sia or The reading in the text above is less attractive but

For the deduction of one carat per solidus see 26. I4~i6n.

45 Receipt 24.5 x 3 2 cm

March 30, 602

Though the mutilated condition of this papyrus obscures details, the general nature of the transaction it records seems clear. Patrick, abbot of St. Sergius deposited something with one Zunayn, an inhabitant of a different village. According to the original agreement (lines 5 - 6 ) the deposit was to remain with Zunayn until April 25, 603. B u t Patrick apparently took it back on March 30, 602 (line 8), and this document, issued on that day, acknowledges the receipt b y Zunayn of the complete rental or storage charge up to the original terminus. The receipt is written for Zunayn, who is illiterate, b y the scribe Zacharia son of Domnos who has a large and clear but very fussy hand. There are two witnesses, both signing in their own hand. The first (who used an inferior brown ink which spread) writes a clear minuscule script, showing inter alia the typically minuscule nu h1, (as also in 1 5 and 2 5 ) . The second writes a rapid cursive. The writing is across the fibers. The date is discussed in Introd. § 5 where it is shown that both era and calendar are those of Gaza. Some additional data may be cited here. The activities of Patrick son of Sergius (who flourished 5 9 8 - 6 0 5 and died 6 2 8 , see 4 4 introd.) preclude the Arabia Provincia E r a in which year 6 6 2 would be equivalent to a . d . 7 6 7 / 7 6 8 . According to the Gaza E r a and the indiction, the date 605 fits perfectly into Patrick's lifetime. The reason both for the use of this era instead of Arabia Provincia and for the lack of specific mention that it is the Gaza E r a lies in the fact that the document was drawn up not in Nessana (which used the Arabia Provincia E r a exclusively) but in Oindos Village, the home of Zunayn (line 2). This village is unknown, but its location m a y be sought in an area which used the Gaza era, i.e. in Palestina Prima.

5

10 3 n d hand

N O N - L I T E R A R Y

P A P Y R I

but the letters cannot be read. impossible, laasvou was probably intended 8 For _ . corrected from 9 letters. omitted after For 10 Perhaps two lettersare almost completely obliterated. omitted and inserted later above.

I35

. Perhaps

inserted later in smaller seems to be intended; the first

An agreement (?) took place between Father Patrick son of Sergius, abbot of St. Sergius of Nessana, and Zunayn son of Natur from the village of Oindos in the matter of the storage of . . . by him. And there came . . . Zunayn son of Easenos to Patrick . . . the storage until April 25, 603. This was written entirely by the hand of me, Zacharia son of Domnos, commissioned by Zunayn, who said he was unlettered. Written March 30, 602. The aforesaid Zunayn has been paid in full the rental ( ?) for the said storage both for the time already past and for next year. In the presence of me, . . . son of Nahashtab ( ?), the aforesaid Zunayn son of Natur commissioned Zacharia son of Domnos to write this receipt for him. He has discharged the commission and I bear witness. I, George son of Salaman, was present and bear witness. the year is included goes with parenthetically. 9 On the retained object with the passive of -rrAripoco cf. PCairo Masp 67168.62.

46 Loan of Money 19 x 105 cm

J u l y 16, 605

Abraham son of Procopius acknowledges to Patrick son of Sergius a debt of nine solidi, of which six were actually lent. Although the text is broken at a crucial point (lines 5-6), it seems clear that these six solidi were to bear interest at the rate of 6 per cent, the rate that Justinian had in a.d. 528 established as the legal maximum for most types of transactions. The other three solidi for some reason were not subject to interest. The papyrus is written in a fine bold hand in long lines with the fibers. Final ou is in lines 3, 7, in lines 3, 5, 7, occasionally written ou. In in line 3 and in line 8, final epsilon is written above the preceding letter which is then followed by an abbreviation sign. The presence of regular sets of small holes shows that the document had been rolled vertically, then tied and sealed. The folds increase in width from 1.5 cm at the left to 5 cm at the right.

5

N O N - L I T E R A R Y

P A P Y R I

137

10

also in line 12) In the name of the Holy, Most Glorious, and Life-giving Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and of our Most Glorious Lady, Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary, and of the Choir of the Holy Martyrs Camp Nessana Elusa City District July 16, 605 Abraham son of Procopius, grandson of Poorsaphos, wellborn resident of the above Camp, T o the most reverend Patrick son of Sergius, reader and abbot of the Monastery of the Holy and Most Glorius Martyrs Sergius and Bacchus, himself also resident of the above Camp, Greeting! I acknowledge that I have received and now have from you for my private and pressing needs, genuine imperial solidi, pure gold, four-gram weight, first quality, to the number of nine (9 sol.) less nine carats (9 car.) on the Gaza standard. These I, Abraham, together with all my heirs and assigns acknowledge that I will pay back to you, the most reverend Patrick and your heirs and assigns, on whatever day and hour you may wish, namely six solidi less six carats on the Gaza standard . . . 6 per cent interest, and the remaining three solidi less three carats, as a part of the principal free of interest of any kind, without equivocation or delay and without any controversy or excuse or legal impediment of any sort. Against this sum the said wellborn Abraham and his heirs and assigns pledge to the said most reverend Patrick and his heirs and assigns all their present and future belongings of every sort and kind.

138

E X C A V A T I O N S

A T

N E S S A N A

On formal interrogation I assented to all details in order. This document is valid wherever presented. I the aforementioned Abraham son of Procopius have received from you, the most reverend Patrick son of Sergius nine solidi less nine carats, and will repay in full as written above. I pledge without condition all my present and future belongings of every sort and kind. On being asked the formal question I assented to all details in order. I, Zunayn son of Abraham, have written for him, at his bidding, since he is by his own statement illiterate. In the presence of me Jadhimah son of Zunayn, sub-deacon, Abraham son of Procopius commissioned the most righteous Zunayn son of Abraham to sign for him in this debt. He has executed it and I do so testify. In the presence of me, ... son of .. ., Abraham son of Procopius commissioned the most righteous Zunayn son of Abraham to sign for him in this debt. He has executed it and I do so testify. In the presence of me Flavius Abraham son of Tawraan, Abraham son of Procopius com missioned the most righteous Zunayn son of Abraham to sign for him in this debt. He has executed it and I do so testify. In the presence of me ... (broken) 2

έν Νεσάυοις τοΟ κάστρου ορίου πόλεως ' Ελούση ς is a strange anomaly in these papyri. The regular form in the contracts is έυ κώμη Νεσσάυοις όρίου ττόλεως ' Ελούση ς. The reading seems certain. 3 ευγενέστατος: see 22. 29η. The inscriptions cite the church twelve times as St. Sergius, only once as SS. Sergius and Bacchus. The use of the shorter form was obviously popular and accounts for the scribe's writing here the singular μάρτυρος. In place of άναδεδ]έ[χ]θη (for άναδεδέχβαι, supplied from 26.12) δεδαν]ε[ίσ]Θη may be restored as in PFlor 300.9 (597) or PCairo Masp 67162.13 (568). 4 ττρωτεϊος is not used elsewhere to qualify νόμισμα. 8 έκατοστιαίοι τόκοι, an example of which appears in the sixth century in PGrenf ir 89.5, is the interest of 1Zioo, or one drachma per mina, per month (τόκος δραχμιαΐος έκάστης μνας; τόκος δραχμής Trj μνα τόν μήνα εκαστον) or 12 per cent per annum. This was the legal rate of interest in the Roman period until Justinian in 528 (C. J. 4.32.26.2)

fixed 6 per cent, the rate expressed by ήμιεκατοστιαίους, as the maximum, except for loans in specie and in traiecticiis contractibus where the old rate of 12 per cent was allowed to stand. The postpositive position of χωρίς seems unique and may be due to an afterthought of the scribe. ϋ[ητή]σεως is certified by 26. 20. The word does not occur in the parallel formulae of Egyptian papyri. It seems to have here the meaning of "con troversy" which it has in the Palmyrene Lex Vectigalis (OGIS 629) 9. On νόμιμος παραγραφή see Preisigke, Worterbuch s.v. τταραγραφή. Forotherpossiblerestorationsin the preceding lacuna, see sixth century parallels: PFlor 300.13; PLond 1711.48-49; PCairo Masp 67310 v.4 and 67162.26. ευρησιλογίας, which occurs in the last-named papyrus, fits the space best both here and in 26. 8 ώμολόγησα έκαστα ακολούθως (also 26.36) is a new variant of the stiftulatio. 9 Ιττΐ ττασιν: so in PLond 77.48 (vi cent). 11 Note that in the year 605 one of the signers still calls himself Flavius.

Two Letters on a Shipment of Fish ίο χ 29.5 cm

Plate 3

Before 605 ?

A brief exchange of notes between two church officials, the deacon Stephan and the abbot Patrick. The order of the letters can be determined both by form and content. The first, written across the fibers and carefully centered on the papyrus, was a deferential note from Patrick to Stephan. The address was written (line 6) on the other side (parallel to the fibers) in large, florid, and carefully distorted capitals, below which Patrick himself added (line 7) Stephan's title and (line 8) his own name and title. The letter went by carrier, and someone, presumably Stephan or his scribe, penned a reply (lines 9-12) on the unused portion, allowing his lines to slope downward in order to avoid the two lines of address. No signature or address was necessary for the second letter, which was sent back to Nessana and there discarded. There are no dates, but approximate limits may be set by the presence of the ηγούμενος Patrick, for whose career see 44 introd. Since Patrick's connection with Nessana is established, it seems that Stephan son of Victorius was a deacon in a church elsewhere. He is not otherwise known. The fact that Patrick calls himself simply ήγούμενος (line 8, as also in 45.1, dated 603) seems to indicate, unless he was not giving his full title, that he was not yet reader or priest, and that 47 antedates 46. The tone of deference with which he addresses Stephan and the air of authority in which the reply is couched clearly reflects a considerable difference in rank between the two men. The letters deal with a shipment of fish in which a shortage has unfortunately been detected. How the shortage occurred is not clear. Stephan, apparently detecting it at the outset, seems to have held up the bearer of the letter and to have had the shipment weighed in his presence. In any case Patrick is being held responsible for the remainder. A somewhat similar letter, written approximately at the same time, can be cited from Egypt. POxy 1857 is a brief note announcing that the bearer of the letter is bringing a present of fish—caught of course in the Nile and not, as here, in the Mediterranean—the weight of which the writer carefully states as 70 pounds. (This is very close to the weight in 47. Can it represent a standard loan or container ?) The editors were puzzled by the sender's request κελεϋσαι γράψαι μοι τήν ποσότητα των λίτρων, but this becomes clearer in the light of the proceedings described below. By specifying the weight in his receipt, the consignee assured the sender that the original shipment had been received intact, that smaller fish had not been substituted in transit. + πάντων πρότερων γράφω προσ[κ]υνω καϊ άσπ[ά£ω σ]ε του έμοΰ γνήσιων φίλων όντα, δέσποτα, θέλεσων δέξασθ[αι παρ]ά [το]0 γραμματεφώρου σκάρου λ(ίτρας) ώγδωέκωντα κεφαλάς μεγάλας εκωσι

140

E X C A V A T I O N S

AT

N E S S A N A

5

6

7

xo

Before writing anything else, I send respectful greetings to you, sir, for you are m y true friend. Please accept from the letter-carrier eighty pounds of sea fish, twenty large heads. In return give m y man Anaklas the protection of a note that you have received them. Pray for me to the Lord, (address) T o m y Lord, greatly beloved of God, and m y friend, worthy, with God's help, of all honor and reverence: Stephan son of Victorius, deacon From Patrick, abbot I received b y Ptolemy the letter of m y lord and friend, together with 16 pickled fish, b y weight 70 pounds. I weighed them in the presence of Ptolemy and . . . until you come. Get (?) the other 2 0 pounds, and a few salt fish. 1 The opening phrase has no exact parallel— presumably was, intentionally or unintentionally, omitted after , The phrase occurs in 50.1. Compare PGrenf 11.91.1: The active form CCCTTT&ICO is unusual, but space precludes the middle;cf.PLipsi.iu ( = Ghedini3o) 18: . The reading is unlikely in view of but cf. PHarris 158.1:

2-3 : usually but inaccurately explained as an official. In certain cases there can be no doubt that the was part of the postal system. In PFlor 39.6-7 ( = Mitteis-Wilcken 1912 lb.405) dated A.D. 396 the office is described as an annual liturgy (also in POxy 900 = Mitteis-Wilcken 1912 Ib.437). In POxy 156 (VI. cent.)

two are promoted to become bucellarii or bodyguards. In POxy 1071.8 (v cent.) the instruction to a ship captain to write implies that the latter was a regular official. Wilcken (Mitteis-Wilcken 1912 Ib.374) has pointed out that the absence of an address on a prefect's letter indicates the use of a special postal delivery for official communications. In the great majority of instances, however, the are not officials at all but either privately employed "runners" ormerecasual carriers. Private persons, were, of course, dependent upon travelers for the delivery of mail, and in the Byzantine period large landowners organized their own postal service. So in POxy 138 (A.D. 6x0-611) a man contracts to assume for the magnate Apion the direction of the cursus velox and the riding stables of the estate for one year at a fee of a pound of gold, and there are other details in POxy 140 ( = MitteisWilcken 1912 Ib.438 dated A.D. 550) and Bell

N O N - L I T E R A R Y PLond iv. xxiv-xxv. Others beside the great landowners found it necessary to employ carriers: PGrenf 11.93 ( V I - V I I cent.) cites the of a presbyter, which is the relationship in 4 7 ; PSI 49 (vi cent.) that of a . The use of in SB 4323.3-4 (Byzantine period) points to a private employer: ( = their father). It is in this private capacity that the delivers not merely letters but also various articles, chiefly food and money. In the present passage he carries food weighing some So pounds and implying transport by camel or donkey; in others he delivers 7 jars of pickled fish (PAmh 156, vi cent.); 2 ounces of opium (PSI 49, vi cent.); 2 keratia in small change (PCairo Masp 67068, vi cent.); 30 folles (Stud Pal vm.1036, v - v i cent.). In some cases the word means no more than "the bearer of this letter", e.g. Stud Pal xx.212 ( V I - V I I cent.), citing a woman ; PGrenf 1. 66 ( V I - V I I cent.), citing a boy or servant ; PLond 1073 (vi cent.) where indicates farmers who present their own petition. In POxy 1164 (vi or vii cent.), letter-carriers are parties to a dispute and the letters they carry may be only an expression of support of their superior, a comes. The repetition of the title, however, in lines 1 and 6 may indicate that these men were actually official, not private, carriers. Other references are inconclusive: PCairo Masp 67194 (vi cent.), Stud Pal x.152 (vi to vii cent.), BGU 1039 (Byzantine). 3 Fish played an important role in the diet even of this inland city and the Colt expedition was impressed by the great quantity of bones discovered in the excavation at Auja. The fish seemed so obviously important an item in the diet of the inhabitants that they were studied, and identified as

P A P Y R I

141

the parrot wrasse. The mention of here is pleasant confirmation of the excavator's findings. The fish is mentioned also in PCairo Zen 59083.2. 4 The reading was suggested by Sir Harold Bell. The receipt is to be given not to the letter-carrier but to a personal servant, 5 _ occurs again in 52.16; cf. Sicc in PGiss 54.17. 6 For the script of the address see 53. The expansion is not quite satisfactory in view of what precedes, but _ is impossible. Nor is entirely certain—the first two letters do not resemble their counterparts elsewhere, and . is possible, 10 : the of lines 2-3. The shipment arrived short 4 heads, weighing 10 pounds. The thief had helped himself to some of the smaller ones: the average weight of the heads in the total shipment was 4 pounds each, of those stolen 2 1 / 2 . 1 0 - 1 1 There is some error here. is not certain, for the two first letters are quite doubtful and there is a positive mark of abbreviation after 6. The reading is preferable but leavesjjLicrOev dangling. Whatever the exact text, the meaning seems to be that Stephan detected the difference between the amount delivered and that stated in Patrick's letter and had the shipment weighed in the presence of the carrier. 11 The letter read as iota is followed by a blank space and may be perhaps the first stroke of kappa for K(cri). If so, what follows may be a garbling of and the whole translated "and they are being kept here until you come." 12 Probably for are contrasted with the pickled fish. This line reveals that Stephan's original order or request was 90 pounds. Patrick sent 80, of which 70 actually arrived,

48 Security for a Loan g.5 x i x cm

Early V I I

This fragment preserves enough of the text of a contract to reveal an interesting variant from the usual procedure in which all the property of a borrower is pledged as security for his loan. Here the borrower offers certain property as security for the loan line 2) and pledges the remainder of his property (line 6) for the fulfillment of the contract. As usual in this period denotes not a pledge or pawn which passes into the lender's possession at the time of the loan, but security — property hypothecated or mortgaged — for the loan. This is clear from the longer formula which occurs in the papyri from Egypt, The nearest parallel to the security arrangement of this document is found in PCairo Masp 67309 (a.d. 569). There a loan of 1 5 solidi is to be repaid in two installments: the for the first installment of 6 solidi is an exedra whose use by the lender is to serve until repayment in lieu of interest; the remainder (9 solidi) is secured by the borrower's house deed, which is to be returned on payment of that sum. For the fulfillment of the contract the borrower pledges all his property. See also 2 6 , where some specific form of security may have been provided. The writing is across the fibers, and only the left margin is intact, perhaps twothirds of the text being lost at the right. The note on the verso seems to be an address or docket and, if it is, to suggest from its position (back of line 2) that only a few lines are missing at the top. If the reading is correct, Patrick was a lawyer and is not to be identified with Patrick son of Sergius. The hand suggests a date early in the seventh century.

5

49 Letter 8 x 24.5 cm

VI-VII

Only the top of this piece is missing but the left side is badly riddled with lacunae. The writing is parallel to the fibers in a medium sized upright hand, rapid and rather careless. Several sets of small perforations show that the letter was rolled tightly from right to left, tied, and sealed. The address on the verso consisted of a single line running with the fibers. Most of this is lost together with the corresponding top portion of the recto. The ragged edge suggests that the roll had been folded and that the remaining portion is half (or one-third) of the original. No connected sense can be made of the letter but the references to merchants who sell and the use of suggest that it deals with preparations for a church festival such as the one mentioned in 5 2 .

Verso 1 6

Probably Possibly ]

but the final letter is not co

2

Perhaps

50 Letter from Bishop George 19 x 3 1 . 5 cm

Plate 4

Early V I I

George, a bishop, prevented by illness from attendance at the festival of St. Sergius, makes arrangements for a donation to be made in absentia. He writes to one Father Zunayn asking him, in the event of his attendance at the festival, to request an unnamed abbot to make the payment to Father Procopius. In this way Procopius will be spared the trouble and expense of calling on George after the festival for his donation. All the personages were known to each other and their home towns called for no mention either in the letter or the address. There can be little doubt that the monastery was church of St. Sergius was the one located in Nessana, that the unnamed its abbot, and that Procopius was the priest in charge of collections. Bishop George and his correspondent Zunayn were then resident elsewhere. The letter seems not to have been rolled, perforated, and sealed in the usual way but merely folded once, vertically, and delivered as a note. The procedure suggests that both writer and recipient resided near each other, perhaps even in different churches in the same town. The handwriting, datable to the early seventh century, is a squat cramped cursive in which and v are similar but are distinguished by a final upstroke given to -rr which lends it the appearance of an English . The address on the verso is written (perhaps by a second hand) in a florid formalized style but far more legible than that used in 4 7 . The reading and interpretation of the text have greatly profited from an acute analysis by Apollon Valakis of Rocky Hill, Connecticut.

5

Verso: second band

1

|i of

at first omitted, later inserted above.

2

(read by Valakis),

N O N - L I T E R A R Y

P A P Y R I

145

Before everything I am writing to send greetings to Father Zunayn. Next I beg you, since I am sick and cannot go out to the festival of St. Sergius, if you go, to beg the abbot to give Father Procopius m y donation so that he will not be forced to come out after the festival. Thus he will himself be relieved of the expense, and I may rest in peace ( ?). Y o u are requested to grant me the favor which is m y due. Abide in good health. If you do not go out, write him. Address: To Father Zunayn From George, b y the grace of God bishop. 1

With the opening phrase compare 47:

The greeting here however is formal, in the third person. 3 Here and in line 6 the scribe hesitated in the spelling of first writing , then changing p to o (leaving the tail) and completing the word. the contribution was apparently a regular one: George expects the abbot to know the amount which is to be given and moreover Procopius would under ordinary circumstances have come to George to collect it for the church. Donations like this formed the of 79.56. That these donations might run to considerable sums is in-

10

dicated by an inscription from Gerasa (Welles 1938.479, no. 304) which mentions a martyrion built in the sixth century of a bishop and a deacon. 6 for is the reading of Valakis, who prefers to regard as the future infinitive of translating it "be forced to drive, or toride out." 7 : the syntax is difficult but the general sense seems clear: the Bishop's request will save Procopius money and will relieve the mind of the Bishop himself. 8 The phrase occurs in PStrass 35.21. 9 or, less likely, Procopius.

51 Letter from the Bishop of Aela 12 x 30.5 cm

Aela, early VII

The body of this brief note was written by a scribe for Moses, bishop of Aela, and was signed (line 6) by Moses himself. The scribe writes in a careless, irregular, slanting hand across the fibers; the bishop writes in more deliberate square letters. Therecipient of the letter is a Victor son of Sergius, clearly resident in Nessana and just possibly to be identified with the Victor who in 605 erected a building in memory of himself and his father, the architect Flavius Sergius (Inscr. 72 = Alt 1921.38-39). There is no address and the letter seems to have been rolled and folded but not sealed. + Μωυσής έ[λ]έει θ(εο)ΰ έττίστ^οττος) του Άϊλάν[ου] Βίκτορι Σεργίου έτπστέλλοο τα ύτΓθτετάγ[μένα

. . .].λη[. .]ν. . .ττ. ελαβες [άττ]ό του Σαρακηνο[ΰ

δοϋναι τω άγί[ω Σεργίω] Νεσάνω[ν] και τω ccyico Σεργίω Έλούσης.

τούτο γαρ

ποιών τά μεγάλ[α μο]ι χαρίί,-η καΐ -ττρός τα. [.]ηδιστα[.]ε. .ησιαμφ.ηλε .τινι το τταρόντι καθυττεσημηνάμηυ [έττ]ιστάλματι. + 2 ^ hand ik

1

θυ αϊλα

+ Mouaats Σεργ[ίου] έ[ττ]ίσκο(ττος) ύττεσεμενάμην + β

ετπσ£.; ύττεσεμενάμην, read ύττεσημηνάμην.

Moses, by the grace of God Bishop of Aela, to Victor son of Sergius. I am sending yon the attached . . . you received from the Saracen to give to St. Sergius of Nessana and St. Sergius of Elusa. You are conferring a great favor on me by doing this, and . .. I have added below my signature to this order. 2nd hand Signed by me, Moses son of Sergius, Bishop 1 The line may have been long enough to permit σοι at the end. However, except for one letter in line 2, nothing seems to be lost, although the actual right-hand edge of the papyrus is not preserved. Aela was the seaport at the head of the Gulf of Akaba, about no miles from Nessana and likewise in Palaestina Tertia. It was the Nabataean founda tion which supplanted Biblical Elath as the prosperous caxavan station on the incense route from South Arabia to Syria and Palestine. The population was Christian and its bishop was important enough to attend the council of Nicaea. The name is variously cited as Αίλανή, τά Αϊλανα, Έλάνα, Άειλά, and ' Αϊλάς. The form here is cited by Steph. Byz. See also Abel 1938.311. 2 The Saracen seems to have been a messenger from Aela to Nessana and Elusa. Hitti 1946.43 points out the origin of the name from sharq (east) and sharqiyun (easterners) in reference to the country and the Bedouins east of Palestine. Thus the description of Job vaguely translated "the

greatest of all the men of the east" (i.3) means actually that he was sheikh of the bani Qeclem (the Biblical equivalent of Ar. sharqiyun). The indefiniteness of the reference here favors the view that the messenger was an unnamed Bedouin. In 89 there is some additional evidence. Saracens are mentioned four times (lines 22, 27, 35, 40) in that account in connection with camels and business. One (line 22) is a guide to Mt. Sinai, a group of them (line 35) cattle thieves. The general impression is of Bedouins controlling the area in southern Sinai. The name is generic, as 89.35 shows, for there a tribe of Saracens is specifically named the bani Udayyid and in 58.8 it seems certainly to mean Bedouin tribes. 4 Possibly, as suggested by Valakis, ττρός τώ [μ]ή διστά[ί.]ειν "so that you need not hesitate." The letters at the end of the line are certain; that after φ is either β or a, more likely the former. Perhaps a garbling of αμφιβάλλω in the sense "to be in doubt."

52 Clerical Letter 18 x 13.5 cm

Early V I I

Three edges of this papyrus are preserved and only the left is lost. The surface is in good condition and the failure to yield continuous sense indicates that a considerable portion, perhaps half, is lost. It is clearly part of an ecclesiastical letter, and the loss of so considerable a portion of the text is unfortunate, for some of the allusions indicate departures from the usual letter of this type. The festival of St. Sergius is mentioned in line 9 and a new word (or ) makes its appearance. Writing is across the fibers.

5

xo

15

. . . the men, having saved their city b y their supplications . . . I arrived in order to find the kakaithion and I am sending to her . . . to, . . . and I did not find the . . . I sent to her by . . . this kakaithion furnish annually to the (church?) there . . . of SS. Sergius and Bacchus. I spoke this way to you, understand, in order to . . . third of a solidus. If therefore it is God's will . . . festival of St. Sergius and pay . . . pay m y cordial respects to m y lord . . . I shall hear concerning his holy . . . (give P) to

148

E X C A V A T I O N S

A T

N E S S A N A

Brother Stephan ... (greet) Brother John, the venerable Bishop. . . . I want you to know that we found nothing ... through the Lord. (address) To the very honorable, greatly beloved of God, servant of Christ ... It would be interesting to know the occasion referred to here. Can it refer to relief from tax burdens? The ττόλις is perhaps "Ελουσα. The opening salutation must have been very short. 2 κακαιθιν and κακααθιν in line 5 are both clearly read and are no doubt variants of the same word. 8-10 -J-J ie s e n s e may be reasonably connected: if, d.v., you go to the Sergius festival, pay my con tribution and give my greetings. Cf. 50. 1

15-16 XJ 16 Se lines are apparently a postscript (since the centering of line 14 indicates the formal end of the letter) written by the same hand on the verso, upside down to the text on the recto. 17 The address is written in larger, formalized but legible letters across the top of the verso.

Letter from the Abbot Patrick 25.5

χ

17

cm

Plate

3

Before

608?

The fragment lacks bottom and left side. That a considerable portion of the beginnings of lines is lost is indicated by the failure to yield continuous sense; that a number of lines are lost at the bottom is shown by the missing portion of verso lines 16-22 which are at right angles to the main text. On the verso is an account (157). The address on the back is to be compared with that on 47.6. Both are written in the same formalized hand and the shapes of some of the letters too are so much alike (both, among other things, exhibiting the peculiar open-tailed p) as to make it plausible that the letters and addresses were all written by the same person, the abbot Patrick. (For the practice of using different styles of handwriting see 54 introd.) The plausibility becomes a certainty in view of the fact that 44, specifically said to be όλογράφω μου χειρί by Patrick, is unmistakably in the same hand as the body of 47 and 53. The difficulty experienced in reading the hand which Patrick employs in his address lies rather in the inadequately marked abbreviations than in the letters themselves, crabbed as these are. It would not have been possible to read these two lines at all if it had not been for the previous work of the editors of POxy 1841-1869. These papyrus letters carried variations of a stereotyped form of address, the repetitive character of which provided clues to the correct readings and to the readings in 47 and 53 as well. It is worth noting, as another indication of the way in which social conventions were diffused through the Byzantine world, that the formal phrases used in Palestine and in Egypt were so nearly identical. The two addresses are reproduced, for their palaeographical interest (Plate 3). Essentially the writer strove for decorative effect by making the tops of his letters run in a straight line broken only by abbreviations and certain elevated diminutive forms, while the bottoms of letters provided a wavy line of rounded finials almost all of which curved to the right. A difficulty arises from this identification of the hands. If Patrick wrote both 47 and 53 and if he was abbot of St. Sergius in Nessana 1 the present letter must have been mailed (as was 47) to someone out of town. It was easy to see how 47 found its way back to Nessana, but there is no explanation for 53 except perhaps that it was not actually sent. Of the contents of the letter, nothing more can be recovered than that it refers to a trip taken by Patrick with one Father Sergius and mentions a possible visit of the recipient and some accounts. γ]εγράφεκα ττροσκυνων τά εΐχνη υμών ]τα yivooKiv σοι θέλω ώς ό άββας Zipyis ].ολειν και τταρεκάλεσέν μοι εινα συνανελθ[ώ ] μή παρακούσω τδν άνθρώττων

E X C A V A T I O N S

150

AT

NES.

SANA

5

10

15

verso:

. . . I have written, kissing your feet, . . . I want you to know that Father Sergius . . . and he requested m e to journey up with . . . and not disobey the men . . . However, finding the matter . . . I beg you . . . b y God . . . I beg you, if you come, to buy preserves . . . small reckoning. Speak to his Reverence, Father . . . on account of the chest( ?) where it is . . . and there is the reckoning . . . lest I be found on the day which we are about to . . . (address) T o m y lord, worthy with God's help, of all honor and reverence . . . Perhaps something like Kcri was written, as in PHarris 1 1 2 . 2 . 2 A new sentence began with 5 was first written It is also possible to read 15 The formula differs slightly from that of 47. 1

While is not certain here and is missing in 47.6, it can confidently be accepted on the analogy of the Egyptian examples. The last abbreviation is also a variant: the 1 of is written as part of the following |I and the raised T (for TOV) is lacking.

Petition 48

χ 32.5 cm

Late VI or early VII

It is regrettable that the only petition of the collection should be in such a lamentable state. It is put together from scattered fragments which could be properly placed only because the writing here and on the verso (89) is so completely different that it offered a double clue to locating the pieces in their proper positions. The papyrus is complete at top and bottom. The writing runs with the fibers and must, therefore, have been in long lines. Comparatively little seems to be lost at the left in the first four lines (see note to line 1), but on the right the amount lost—or rather, cut off when the papyrus was used for the account on the verso—seems to be considerable and cannot even be approximated. Documents such as 24 and 29 indicate that in its original state 54 might easily have been more than twice its present width. But despite its fragmentary condition, the petition is not without interest. For one thing, it does not belong to the Nessana milieu, but came into the archive there by accident. It was written in a village Chaphrea (?), the whereabouts of which is unknown but which may have been located further to the north (line gn). The writer, a priest, was an official in the town and directed his petition or complaint to a higher authority (the pagarch or comes ?) whose location also is lost. It was sent sealed, as some perforations clearly show. After it had served its purpose and had been discarded it was picked up as waste material by the merchants of 89 who used it for their expense record and who left it eventually in Nessana. Of the petition itself no more can be said than that it dealt with a financial matter in which the town was concerned and which in some way involved a limekiln and public taxes. The hands are also of interest. The address in line1 is in large, upright, elegant letters which average one inch in height. Line 2 which designates the petitioner is a normalsized cursive with considerable forward slant. The body of the petition is in a flowing, upright cursive. Despite these differences, it is clear that the entire document, with the possible exceptions of the traces of a signature (line 11) in a smaller hand, is the work of a single scribe, two of whose stylistic peculiarities are easily marked: ου is written o u when final, and in άλογους (line 5) and τούτων (line 8); ρ is a distinctive letter with widely spaced double tail which the rounded head cuts with a flourish. The use of markedly different hands by the same scribe bears out an observation made by the editors of POxy 1881.24η. ι -f- TCp δ]εσττόττ) μου Φλ(αουκρ) Γεοοργίω [tco ένδ]οξ(οτάτω) μο[υ ..].λ[..].ω[ δέησι$ τταρά τοΟ δείνα έ]λεεινοΰ ττρεσ(3(υτέρου) και διοικητού Χαφρεα[τοον κώ]μης .[....] ± 12

[

]ε[.]ν έττινεύσων διέγειρεν τον δεσττότην ήμ[ων το]ν ύττερφυέ[στ(ατον)] πατρίκιον και ττριμ[

152

EXCAVATIONS ±12

5

AT

N E S S A N A

]·[·]··[·· ·] σια τ °ϋ ημετέρου [χωρ]ίου τελμ[.]ν ώς επος είττεϊν εις πορίαν περί εα[ ± 3^

]· . ναλογουσησι[.

.]ΤΓΙ . . σιραςτών

δη[μο]σίων είσφο[

? νο]σοΰντων ϋ,ημίαις ή . . σπεδλωσεσιν ΰποβαλο[ τοϋ ή]μετέρο[υ] χωρίου, έττιτρέψαι δέ τοις παρά τον του δικαί[ου ] συνήθειαν καϊ έκ τούτων πόρος ει.[.. .] διί..το[ ].αι της ξυλο[κο]ττίας και των ασβεστίων και ΐΓά[ντων ίο

ό δη]μόσιος

λόγος

οπως

τοϋ δικαίου τυγχάνομ[εν

]ωσα +

1 5

3 φλ 5 , ενδ]ο ξ επινευσων corr. from επινευσα 6 Possibly μοίρας. εΐσφο]ρο:ς or είσφο]ρών ? υποβαλο

The very large size of the letters accounts for the slight restoration required at the left. The epithet ενδοξότατος is fully treated by Hornickel 1930.8-11. As the equivalent of illustris and gloriosissimns it indicated high social dignity and in the fourth and fifth centuries was applied to emperors and ranking officials. In the sixth century it became vulgarized and was used of lesser members of the imperial hierarchy. George may have been pagarch or comes (see 36 introd.) but the few traces of letters which remain at the end of the line are indecisive. There is not enough room for στροττηλάτω. 2 The restoration suggested at the beginning of this line is based on sixth century petitions from Egypt (PCairo Masp 67002-5) and actually was divided between the end of line 1 and the beginning of line 2. Some 12 odd letters are missing at the beginning of lines 2-4 and about 36 in the rest. There is no similar clue to the right margin and in fact a good deal of doubt about the end of the line. The traces of the last six letters in line 2 are so exiguous that it is possible that nothing followed κώμης. The name of the village is supplied by the wax tablet 94.16 where τω(ν) Χαφρεοτων occurs. The place is unknown. F. E. Day points out that "χαφρ is a perfect transcription of the Arabic word kajr, which simply means village. Yaqut (Geography iv.286, and Le Strange, Palestine 1890.468) states specifically that in Syria the word kajr is used for village, instead of the usual Arabic word qarya, and that it is always compounded with a proper noun. We may cite, for example, Kafr Nabu, 'the village, of Nebo,' and Kafr Saba, 'the village of Saba.' Very likely the Greeks did not realize the native usage, and took kafr as a place name, omitting its relative word." According to Welles 1938.409 the dioeceies appears in Syria in the fourth century and later as an official connected with building projects and in 1

4

π of ττοριαν (πορείαν) corrected from μ α and ω of ασβεστίων rewritten

9

general was concerned with the city treasury. There is no doubt of the civil function in the village here even though the incumbent is also a priest. In Stud Pal 3.271 B a clerical position is denoted by a similar combination: άρχιδιάκονος και διοκητής της αγίας εκκλησίας 'Ερμου ττόλεως. 3 The expression διέγειρεν τον δεσττότην is new to the papyri. The meaning "when he was about to give his sanction he aroused the patrician" implies that the subject of διέγειρεν was an official who outranked the πατρίκιος. The latter was himself a man of some importance, to judge from the epithets ύπερφυέστατος (= excellentissimus) and δεσπότης applied to him. His exact title must be deduced from πριμ[; but since only a dot of the μ is left, other letters are by no means excluded as possibilities. If μ is correct, πριμιπιλάριος, πριμικήριος or πριμισκρίνιος suggest themselves. In any case, a military position is indicated. 4 The χωρίον referred to here and in line 7 is, as generally in sixth century papyri, equivalent to "town" or "native city" and refers to Χαφρεατων κώμη above. See also 58.5 an( i 89.25. 7 έπιτρέψαι in the sense of "empower" or "author ize" would fit neatly but the reading is not at all sure. The ρ here is normal whereas in all other cases this scribe uses a very elaborate form somewhat resembling our cursive ampersand. The letters actually look more like εποπεψοι. e This is the first appearance of άσβέστιον but the word in modern Greek means "limestone" and probably has the same sense here. In association with ξυλοκοπίας it would then refer to a lime kiln or to lime-burning operations. Wood was too scarce in the Negeb to permit burning on anything but the smallest scale and the very mention implies that the petition originated in some town further north. Plaster was of course used in buildings in Nessana but the lime was unburned and of poor quality (22. i9~2on).

Receipt for Taxes 22 x 19 cm

Gaza, April 11, 682 (?)

John son of Ammianus and Victor son of George, tax collectors, acknowledge receipt from George son of Patrick of 41J 3 solidi in payment of the tax assessed on the land of Sergius son of Menas. Payment of taxes by third parties is not uncommon in the papyri (e.g. PLond 1420.29η), but here a double receipt is encountered, for the tax receipt is followed by a statement in which Sergius acknowledges that he owes George the solidi which he has just paid the collector. John and Victor are not residents of Nessana, but officials in Gaza. This seems to follow from two facts: specific mention (line 3) of Nessana as the home of the taxpayer implies that the collectors were located somewhere else; use of the Gaza calendar in an official document places the locale in Filastin (see Introd. § 5). The Gaza calendar appears also in 45, written in a village other than Nessana, but while there we deal with a private transaction and with a person coming from the unknown village Oindos, 55 records an official act by persons using the calendar as a matter of routine. It is, then, almost certain that the officials were resident in Gaza itself. Moreover, since the receipt was rolled, sealed, and addressed (or docketed), it was apparently sent or brought to Nessana. If the taxes were paid in Gaza we must assume that the records as well as the officials also were located there. The two collectors appear in 59 as members of a commission of four, again concerned with payment of taxes. They were illiterate and in both instances required a scribe to write the receipt for them. In 55 the scribe was the Sergius son of George of whose handwriting there are three specimens preserved. He wrote the body of 55 in an easily recognized narrow and elongated script that has a decided forward slant and exhibits several characteristic details in the formation of letters (divided ε, long straight-tailed τ, and hook-tailed ι, ρ, ξ) and a marked tendency to separate words. His signature in 56 is unmistakable. For the elaborate divorce agreement 57 he used a larger hand with rather more carefully shaped letters and fewer spacings between words, but in all other respects the identity of hands is clear. In 57.τ Sergius describes himself as a priest; in 77 he is declared ηγούμενος or abbot —the title attests his position as head of the Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus. In 689 (?) he appears as a poll-tax payer along with his father (76.26-28). For the low state of his Greek education see 57 introd. His full name appears in his signature as witness in 56.18: Sergius son of George son of Patrick, and it was he who not only wrote the receipt but also paid the tax. This makes clear the nature of the transaction at Gaza and affords an explanation of the fact that the receipt was not given to the lender George at Nessana. The priest Sergius, visiting Gaza, had in his possession the 41Z3 solidi of his father, and after advanc-

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ing them to the borrower, wrote the receipt in the name, and at the request, of the collectors, and then asked the borrower to add to it in his own hand an acknowledge ment of the loan. After that the whole document was notarized (lines 13-14), the papyrus trimmed (there is a neat margin and no waste space), rolled, tied, and sealed, and later—probably by Sergius—brought to Nessana for George's file. The writing on the verso is thus not an address (for it contains Sergius' name, not George's), but a docket added for identification. The loan presumably was paid, for eventually the receipt, with others of George's papers, was thrown into the "storage" room in the church. George may be identified with the abbot George son of Patrick who (Alt 1921.39, no. 121 = Inscr. 77) set up a memorial column to himself and his wife in what seems to have been St. Sergius' church. The stone is not dated, however, so certainty is impossible. There is no way of determining whether or not he is the George, the dioecetes of Nessana of 68-70 and elsewhere. The borrower, Sergius son of Menas, appears only here and (just possibly) in 59.4. Bell has made abundantly clear (PLond iv.170) that the δημόσια are the taxes levied upon land and paid in money. The amount here involved is not an installment, for it is specifically stated in line 4 that the 41/ 3 solidi are the taxes for the tenth indiction. Inasmuch as in Aphrodito the average annual land tax was Z 1I 4 solidi, we may infer that, on Egyptian standards, Sergius' property was larger than usual. On the procedure for collection in Egypt see Casson 1938.279-288. The date is inferred from those of the other two documents in which the priest Sergius appears: January 687 (56) and September 689 (57). The tenth indiction in the series covering these years would be 682, and 55 is accordingly so placed rather than in the years 667 or 697, either of which however, would be possible. Moreover, since 55 and 59 are similar in content and in the persons involved, the latter is probably to be included in the same indiction series and dated 684. The document was written across the fibers on a sheet of papyrus neatly cut to fit the text, or trimmed when the writing was completed. It was rolled, beginning at the bottom, into a tight scroll (creases 1.7 to 2.4 cm) then perforated and tied. The docket (line 15) was written on the outermost part of the roll. + εσχον έγώ Μωάν[ν]ης

3

Αμμιανοΰ και Βίκτορος Γεωργίου

ετπκλην Τουραντ[.. .αρ[.]ν. .ε( ) .0( ) τταρά σοΰ Γεω[ργίο]υ Πατρικίου άττό κάστρου Νεσάνοον [0]ττέρ Σεργίου Μηνα τ[ο]0 Σο.[.]ησειου 5

τά δι' αυτοΰ δη[μ]όσια της ΐνδ(ικτίωνος) ϊ

νο(μίσματα) τέσσαρα τρίτον συν της εχοντίας αυτών καΐ μΐ έξήνε ή μας έττεροταν αύτόν άλλο τί ττοτε εω[ς] λυμηνη της ϊνδ(ικτίο^νος) ϊ. έγρ(άφη) κατ' έτπτροττήν 'Ιωάννου και Βίκτορος άγραμμάτον αυτών δντον χηρΐ έμ| Σεργίου Γεωργίου τϊ μηνός Ιανθικοΰ κατά Γαϋέον !V Ινδ(ικτίωνος) ϊ και μαρτυρδ +

IO

2

nd

hand

+ Σέργιου Μηνα εΐσχον τταρά σοΰ Γεωργίου Πατρικίου τά ττροειριμένα νομίσματα τέσαρα τρί-

N O N - L I T E R A R Y τον καΐ πάντα πλερώσω άνα[μ]φηβόλος. 3 ^ hand

P A P Y R I

155

ύ[ττο]γρά-

rc

ψας χερί έμε -)-

' Αβραάμις

Αλοβεου

παρήμιν καΐ μαρτυρώ +

(on the verso) 15

I ϊωατνυης 8, 13 χειρί έμη II προειρημένα,

· ουεστικ/ Σεργίου ουσ... 6 έπερωταν 7> 9 ϊνδ/ (with very long slant iota) δ-β μή έξείναι 9Trj 10For αγραμμάτων όντων μαρτυρώ Σέργιος, εσχον j Γαί,αίων, 12 14 παρήμην τέσσαρα πληρώσω αναμφιβόλως, γ of υπαγραψας added later 5

υν

8

+ I, John son of Ammianus, and Victor, also called Turant..., son of George have received from y o u , G e o r g e s o n of P a t r i c k , r e s i d e n t o f C a m p N e s s a n a , o n b e h a l f of S e r g i u s s o n of M e n a s s o n o f . . . , the public taxes charged against him for the tenth indiction, namely four and one-third gold solidi, including the surcharge upon them. We acknowledge that we have no right to make any further demand whatsoever against him until the end of the tenth indiction. Written with the authorization of John and Victor, since they are illiterate, by my hand, Sergius son of George, on the sixteenth of Xanthikos (according to the Gaza calendar), tenth indic tion, and I bear witness. -j+ I, Sergius son of Menas, have received from you, George son of Patrick, the aforesaid four and one-third solidi and will pay them back in full without dispute. Signed by my own hand, -J+ I, Abraham son of al-Ubayy, was present and bear witness. + 2 The text was crossed by one of the folds and has been too mangled for restoration. The words lost were probably the titles of John and Victor. The letters may also be read Γουρανουι[..]. αρ.. .ε( ) εθ( ) The last two words were abbreviated by raising ε and θ; the final word may be ευθ( ). 4 The second word may be a title instead of the grandfather's name. fi Although εχοντία does not occur elsewhere, its meaning in this context is clearly "surcharge," "additional amount," etc. See 71.5η. The amount of the fee is not specifically stated but σύν indicates that it was included in the sum of 4*/ 3 solidi. Since the solidus contained 24 carats, one-third (8 carats) represents the fee, and the rate °f Via (two CcLrats per solidus) identifies it as the most common of the deductions, that, according to West-Johnson 1944.141 "evidently retained by the collector" and corresponding to the προσδιαγραφόμευα of Roman times. We have then a set of synonyms in έχοντία, έχόμενα and προσδιαγραφόμενα, all of which represent the "overhead" in tax collection, and to these τετάρτια (PLond IV.124) may also be added. The expression used for the gross figure of tax plus overhead is άρίθμια (νομίσματα) as commonly

met in the papyri. It occurs in 58.7 where the amount paid έκ της γηωμετρίας τον Σαρακινδυ is stated to be 37l/ a νομ. άρίθμια. The sum does not however break down into the same proportions and therefore a deduction of another sort or another rate is indicated there. έξηνε for έξεϊναι seems here to be the main verb and perhaps to foreshadow the third person singular of the present indicative in modern Greek. But 59.ir is a parallel, and indicates that the infinitive is dependent upon δμολογοΟμεν, implicit in εσχον (line 1). 6 The form λυμηυη is new. It is apparently derived from λιμαίνω "am starved" with the same figurative sense as φβίω with nights, months, etc. But the reading is not quite certain —a letter, or even two, may be lost between λ and υ, as the scribe generally writes above the elongated right tail of λ. Compare άπό άρχεις μινός in 59.4. 15 This line is so badly rubbed as to be practically illegible. The first letter may perhaps be a cross, or the word may be δομεστικ(ω), but οικιστικ/ as in PLond 14x2.9 cannot be read. The last letters may be the patronymic, but neither Μήνα nor Γεωργίου is possible.

Release from Labor Contract 35.4 χ 34.9 cm

January 18, 687

This papyrus was sent in error to Sir Harold Bell together with the entagia 60-66 and was not brought to America by Colt until 1952. In the meantime, shortly after its discovery, Professor M. Schwabe saw it, sensed its importance and, with Colt's permission, published it three years later (Schwabe 1938). In ignorance of Schwabe's work Sir Harold prepared an edition, but on the appearance of Schwabe 1938, suppressed it and generously forwarded his notes to Schwabe and me. The original was not available to any of the scholars who subsequently discussed the text. Moreover, Schwabe's article was written in Hebrew and was known to Westermann (1948) and to me only in a translation, made by Professor Ralph Marcus and available only in typescript. Falenciak (1948) was handicapped by his inability to obtain Schwabe's commentary, either in the original or in translation. Westermann and Falenciak wrote without knowledge of each other's work (their articles appeared simultaneously) or of the unpublished work of Bell. There is, therefore, in the previous discussions both agreement on the general interpretation of the piece and some justifiable error in details, but I see no reason to perpetuate the errors in the course of explaining them away. Both the text and discussion which follow lean heavily on the work which was done by all of the scholars mentioned and I have not hesitated to avail myself, without specific acknowledgement, of the results of that work. The transaction recorded in the contract is most clearly described in Westermann's fundamental article (1948.49-50) as a release from an indenture of general service. Al-Aswad had some time previously hired the son of the monk Cyrin to work for him. Although the technical term παραμονή, generally used to describe this relation, does not appear, it seems that the work done was "general service" rather than apprenticeship. In other words, the employer wanted a handy man, not a boy to whom he would teach a trade. As an inducement to obtain the consent of the father, al-Aswad had advanced him the not inconsiderable sum of 50 solidi. It is clear that this money represents the legal amount which Cyrin accepted as a loan, and the return of which is acknowledged in lines 9-11. The money, however, was not really a loan. It involved two separate transactions, as the method of repayment shows, although the phraseology describing them is rather obscure. Thirty solidi were returned as payment in full (εττλέρωσεν, line 10) of a loan. As Westermann shows, this was a non-interest-bearing advance intended as an inducement to the prospective employee (or, here, his father) to enter into the con tractual relation. The advance was, as usual, for the duration of the labor contract. When the term was concluded and the full contractual sum was formally proffered (Ιξ αύτώυ, line 9), 20 of the 50 solidi were given to theboy's father as a gratuity (εχαρίσατο): this can only mean as wages for the work done by the boy during the life of the contract.

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The formal release is expressed by the phrase έλυτρώσατο τόν ύιόν which means (as correctly interpreted by Falenciak 1948.78, n. 20) "Cyrin has paid in order to secure the release of his son." The clumsiness of the Greek is responsible for some doubt as to the exact text but the meaning of the provisions seems certain. The former employer guarantees: x. That the father is now freed from any constraint in his movement that resulted from his acceptance of the money advance or his guarantee of his son's appearance, i.e., he can now go where he chooses and his former creditor has no further hold on him. 2. That the son also has complete freedom to live his life without interference from his former employer (εχι έξουσίαν eis την ψυχή ν αώτοΰ όπουδάν άττέλβη κτλ). The result is thus a unilateral declaration by al-Aswad to both father and son, releasing each individually from the constraints imposed on them by the agreement now termi nated. Neither of the parties to the contract appears elsewhere in the archive. The father of the indentured worker may well (as Schwabe suggested) have been a monk in the monastery of which Sergius was head. The employer al-Aswad may have been one of the Arab newcomers, as the presence of the Arabic text in lines 1-6 seems to suggest — in any case he required something more than a wholly Greek paper. The scribe and the witness are both known as the church officials who two years later witnessed the divorce agreement 57. George son of Victor is described there (lines 1-2, 26) as archdeacon, while Sergius son of George (lines 1, 24) was his superior, the priest. They were the ranking members of the clerical group of witnesses, all probably clergy in the monastery of SS. Sergius and Bacchus. It is thus quite likely, as Schwabe pointed out, that Sergius was a member of the prominent family whose presence can be traced at Nessana for over a century (c. 570-687; cf. 44 introd.) and that his lineage could be stated Arab style as Sergius (fl. 687) ibn George ibn Patrick (priest and abbot f 628) ibn Sergius (f 592) ibn Patrick (priest and abbot). Schwabe's suggestion however that George son of Victor also belonged to the family is disproved by 76 .27-28, 32. The question is important for the bearing it has on the state of education in the higher ranks of Nessana society. The priest who wrote the text of 57 as well as the archdeacon author of 56 were both, so far as Greek was concerned, only semiliterate. In fact, the carelessness or ignorance of the scribe George is rather noteworthy. Iotacism is to be expected at this period but not to the extent exhibited here: ε for η (έττλέρωσεν, μέτε, έμε, κλερονόμοι), for αι (πες) and for υ (έλετρόσατω) ει for 01 (εί) η for ι (νομήσματα, χιρή), for ει (μηδής) and for 01 [διάδοχη) ι for ει (εχι, θέλιν, άττελθϊν) and for η (μίτε) Common enough too is confusion of ο for co (έλετρόσατω, οώτδν, το, έσεφόνησεν) and co for ο (ελετρόσατω, τών, αύτώ) as is the change of mutes in δρίτη for τρίτη. The use of an

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augment before a preposition is commented on in the note to line 1 1 . T o all of these errors of the archdeacon George, there are parallels in the work of his superior, the priest Sergius, in 5 7 , who is more irresponsible in his use of cases, but outranked by George for utter carelessness. He omits final letters: OCUTCO for (line 13) for (line 14) for (line 14). He leaves out a syllable in ev opicrn (line 7) but inserts a superfluous one in (line 9), commits dittography ( line 12) and runs two words together in (line 16). The grammar and syntax displayed in 5 6 and 5 7 are not without wider significance. They appear in documents which have legal force and so may be compared with the group 1 4 - 3 4 , written a century and more earlier. In those days the influence of the Byzantine empire was strong and the education of its bureaucracy good. Its scribes (notaries or lawyers) were well trained in the routine of drawing up legal instruments and they were permitted no such slovenliness as is evidenced in 5 6 and 5 7 . It will be noted also that the empire in earlier times operated in Nessana through its military as well as civil officers and that both branches were well educated. After the withdrawal of central authority, local control passed into the hands of the church and in the course of time underwent marked deterioration. The priest Sergius and the deacon George were not mere street-corner scribes: their handwriting is practiced, they were the ranking members of the church and the former at least belonged to one of the first families of the town. That their education should have descended to the level shown here is an index to the decline of Greek culture under the impact of early Moslem pressure. Christian monasteries and churches were tolerated and even protected, but the prestige that had been attached to the church and to the use of Greek was b y the eighth century markedly dimmed b y the greater social rewards possible under Islam. See Lawrence E . Browne, The Eclipse of Christianity in Asia (Cambridge 1933), pp. 2 9 - 4 3 . Despite many lacunae, the papyrus is in good condition. Top, left, and bottom margins are preserved, the right is jagged but at most only a few letters are lost. The writing, in a practiced but inelegant hand, runs across the fibres. The verso is unused. Like 5 7 the document was loosely rolled from bottom to top but was not perforated for sealing. Dr. F . E . D a y has kindly supplied the text, translation, and commentary for the Arabic portion of the document.

5

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159

10

15

Translation

of

Arabic

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This is (?) what . . . agreed (?) . . . al-Aswad ibn 'AdI . . . fifty dinars. And he gave to him for the sake of God (sadaqa) twenty dinars . . . thirty dinars, and he made the condition . . . that his son (?) shall . . . whoever wishes that . . . Witnessed by Yazld ibn Fa'id and H . . . ibn Rabl< and vAbd ar-Rahman ibn 'Uwaidh and Sand ibn 'Abd Allah. Written by . . .n, year 67. Salam. The year 67 is from July 28, 686, to July 18, 687; it is odd that the month was left out, but no name of a month can be read. The Arabic of the contract was written first, and what remains of the Arabic agrees with its Greek translation. Two points, however, are to be noted. , , , , .. . , The p alaihi bi-, where 1 h r a s e s a d a q a 2 . the verb takes two prepositions, means specifically "he gave to him for the sake of God"; the noun sadaqa being alms, as an act of piety. This is the meaning of the Greek, line 9 and this act has a definite meaning among Muslims. Secondly, all of the witnesses to the Arabic text are Muslims, as is also al-Aswad ibn 'AdI. The name of the first

Translation

witness, Yazld ibn Fa'id, occurs also in the Arabic verso of 77. There Yazld ibn Fa'id receives a letter from a superior official, Nabr ibn Qais, rebuking him in very strong terms for injustice and oppression to the people of Nastan, for, he remarks, "the people of Nastan are under the protection of God." (In Islamic law all Tews and Christians are "the .1 * j , ^ ,lc. , , , , ,, , protected people). So it may be deduced that Yazid ibn Fa'id was probably the qadi or judge of Nastan, and in fact, dealing with contracts was one 0 f the duties of the qadi (Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Muslim Institutions, 1950.148). His name, as first witness to this contract, shows its importance from the Muslim point of view.

of Greek

In the name of God! This is to certify that Father Cyrin paid fifty solidi to release his son from al-Aswad ibn 'AdI. Twenty of these solidi al-Aswad gave as charity to Father Cyrin, and thirty solidi Father Cyrin paid in full settlement to al-Aswad ben 'Adi. Al-Aswad ibn 'AdI entered into agreement with Father Cyrin concerning the latter's son: He, the father, has authority to go away anywhere he has the desire to go and al-Aswad has no authority over him on account of his, Father Cyrin's, son in any matter great or small;

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T h e son himself has authority over his own life wherever he goes, in that no m a n (neither I, Al-Aswad, nor m y heirs and assigns) has any claim against him. W r i t t e n b y m y h a n d : Father George son of Victor, January 18, 687 I, Sergius, son of George son of Patrick bear witness to the aforesaid. 4 - 5 It is n o t e w o r t h y that certain letters have p o i n t s : in line 4, the in , then in and the same a s e c o n d t i m e . I n line 5 there are t w o p o i n t s in t h e o f w h i c h makes its restoration

for but although the c o m p o u n d is n o t attested, cannot b e ruled out. F o r t h e augment preceding the preposition there is a g o o d parallel in used b y the scribe's

quite certain. P o i n t s also occur in the A r a b i c v e r s o of 77, also of the califate of